Kingfisher Drop International Routes

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines is likely to stop its international operations following the deepening financial crisis that has hit the Indian airline industry.
Expat pilots and crew at Kingfisher that have been waiting since March for international operations to take place, are expected to be laid-off following this decision.
The fate of senior officials employed worldwide is also hanging in the balance, and AviationWeek has learned that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has threatened to stop all operations of Kingfisher Airlines for not meeting the route dispersal guidelines of the government that obligates it to fly a certain amount of seats in under-served markets. Kingfisher has asked for a day's reprieve.
AviationWeek also was told on Friday that Chairman Vijay Mallya, who owns the Formula One Force India team, was rushing back from Japan to meet the government officials on Saturday.
Kingfisher, which took a more than $200 million loan from ICICI Bank toward operational expenses, has come under pressure with the current crisis leaving it with no option but to defer plans to raise funds from equity markets.
The carrier started its daily flights with an A330 from Bangalore to London Heathrow last month with dire load factors--an average of 35 passengers per flight. It was scheduled to start its Mumbai-London dailies Oct 26. The flights, yet to be loaded on the airline's Web site, are not expected to take place for the moment. The slots in London were said to have come from Air France/KLM.
With excess capacity, the airline recently deferred orders for 29 A-320s and cut domestic capacity like the rest of its competitors by around 22%.
With more than 300 employees being laid off, there is more trouble brewing for the carrier whose chairman came under criticism recently for negotiating a shirt sponsorship deal for 20 million pounds with the U.K.s Queens Park Rangers to advertise his Kingfisher beer on the team shirts.
10/10/08 Neelam Mathews/Aviation Week

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2008, Kingfisher Oct 2008