Kingfisher cannot afford maintenance, grounds 15 planes

Mumbai: Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines has grounded 15 aircraft after being unable to meet maintenance and overhaul expenses, a move that could curtail its domestic and international operations further.
The beleaguered carrier owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya is looking for funds from investors and a softer stand from banks to stay afloat. On Thursday, it let go over 50 senior and junior pilots before the completion of their notice period.
"Kingfisher has grounded aircraft as it using these grounded aircraft as Christmas tree (taking parts from one aircraft to service need of other) to keep certain number of aircraft in the fleet active," an industry person familiar with the development said, not wanting to be identified.
Kingfisher refused to comment on the grounding of planes but on the pilots' issue, a spokesperson for the airline said, "We have enough number of pilots to keep our aircraft operational."
About 140 pilots of Kingfisher have put in their papers and 11 have already left without the company giving them a clearance to joint rival budget airline IndiGo. Some pilots have signed up for Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways' ATR fleet.
Kingfisher, which has about 750 pilots, has not divulged how many pilots have left in the past one year.
18/12/11 eTN Global Travel Industry News

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Categories: Kingfisher Dec 2011