Kingfisher puts on hold new international flights

Mumbai: Barely a month after it launched its first international flight, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd has decided to stop expanding global operations, including a Mumbai-London flight that was to start later this month.The airline has also sold to Nigeria’s Arik Air three of the five Airbus A340 planes it bought for overseas flying.
“All international operations are under the scanner with the current global slowdown, and now we are re-evaluating further route launches,” chairman Vijay Mallya said over the phone.
“We have to respect the current global economic meltdown and, therefore, we are reviewing all our earlier projections.”
Kingfisher, which launched daily Bangalore-London flights on 3 September, has secured approvals to fly to the US, the UK, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, Pakistan and Hong Kong. Indian carriers are trimming international operations also as part of their route rationalization.
Kingfisher’s bigger rival, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the second largest carrier in the country, announced on Friday it was temporarily withdrawing from its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route because of poor passenger response.
Kingfisher had already said it would scale down flights to the US even before launching the route.
12/10/08 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Oct 2008, Kingfisher Oct 2008