Kingfisher gets till March-end to file its dues

New Delhi: Airports Authority of India (AAI), the country’s regulator of airports, has asked Kingfisher Airlines Ltd to bring down, before the end of this fiscal year, its overall dues for use of airports within the limits of bank guarantees it has furnished for use of them.
Meanwhile, at least one state-owned oil firm has started denying the airline purchase of jet fuel on credit.
If Kingfisher does not meet the AAI deadline, it may be asked to use airports and the authority’s aeronautical services on a pay-per-use basis (also called cash and carry) with no credit facilities, a senior government official said.
Last year, low-fare carrier SpiceJet Ltd had been shifted to such a model under a funds crunch, but no airline currently operates on such a basis.
After defaulting on payments overdue to AAI in November, when dues totalled up to Rs286 crore, Mumbai-based Kingfisher gave the authority post-dated cheques after the regulator threatened to encash its bank guarantees, a senior civil aviation ministry official had told Mint then.
But, the airline still owes about Rs150 crore to AAI, the senior government official quoted above said. Both he and the aviation ministry official did not want to be identified. “(Kingfisher is) requesting for another grace period,” the government official said. “We have asked them to progressively bring down their dues below their bank guarantee of Rs100 crore by 31 March.”
AAI manages all of the country’s civilian airspace and charges for aeronautical services it provides as also runs most of India’s airports.
Cash-strapped domestic airlines together owe at least Rs1,000 crore to AAI for these aeronautical services as of last week, this government official said. This sum includes nearly Rs700 crore from state-run National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India besides Rs150 crore by Kingfisher, the highest by any private airline firm.
20/02/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: kingfisher Feb 2009