Worst is over for airlines: Mallya

Bangalore: Mr Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines’ Chairman, said on Friday that the airline will break even this month even as he claimed that the worst was over for the airline industry.
“The worst is over for the airline industry and the fundamentals of the sector are strong,” Mr Mallya said at the sidelines of the airline’s annual general meeting.
He said during December, the airline expects to get total revenues of around Rs 500 crore and will “operationally” break even .
He said once the government lowers the sales tax on aviation turbine fuel to 4 per cent from 26 per cent, the airline will pass on most of the savings to the customers.
“We want more people to fly and would pass on most of the savings to the passengers,” he said.
Mr Mallya said apart from being in talks with banks, the airline had received extremely good response from some PE funds.
Refusing to name the PE funds which are in talks with the airline, he said the funds saw increasing opportunities in the sector with the aviation turbine fuel prices coming down to $36 a barrel from over $100 a barrel sometime ago.
He ruled out plans to pick up stake in Jet Airways with which it has an alliance for ground handling services as well as other maintenance services.
27/12/08 Business Line

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008, Kingfisher Dec 2008