Spicejet aspiration too expensive for Kingfisher: Mallya

Consolidations are still the preferred option in the current uncertain aviation climate, Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya said here Monday, a day before low-cost carrier SpiceJet rejected a share-swap deal with his airlines.
“I still make the point that for any small player it is far more vulnerable to be a small independent player in today’s context,” Mallya told reporters Monday at the Farnborough airshow in Britain, where he unveiled an A-300 airbus newly-acquired for Kingfisher Airlines.
“Consolidation is a classical play in any difficult market environment. It has been practised all over the world in many industries and many sectors,” Mallya said.
Giving the example of the Deccan-Kingfisher merger, Mallya said the move had helped realise “huge amounts of synergy”.
“The reason why we’ve been able to find innovative ways of tackling our fuel bill - where we are going to redesign the system of buying aviation turbine fuel - is that we have the scale and size to do so after I bought Deccan.
“Kingfisher alone, or Deccan alone or some other airline alone would not have the scale and size to drive such economies.”
In his comments, made aboard the newly-acquired aircraft, Mallya appeared to anticipate SpiceJet’s rejection of his offer, saying: “I’ve made very clear , I like to do good deals and I will not do expensive deals.”
16/07/08 Indo-Asian News Service/Fresh News

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Categories: Kingfisher Jul 2008, SpiceJet Jul 2008