Two Kingfisher Airlines aircraft deregistered by DGCA

Mumbai: India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has deregistered two aircraft in the fleet of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd following a letter from the German lessor of the planes in which it stated that payments were not being made on time.
This is the first time since 2009 that the regulator is deregistering the plane of a national airline at the request of lessors, a move that’s considered unusual in the international lease market. Two Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd aircraft were removed from the aircraft registry of India in late 2009 owing to similar non-payment.
“We have deregistered the aircraft today,” a government official familiar with the matter said yesterday, following a communication from lessor KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH. “This was due to termination of the lease agreement as the airline was apparently not paying the lessors.”
Kingfisher, which has a fleet of 64 aircraft comprising Airbus A320s and short-haul ATRs, is facing a cash squeeze and has been defaulting on vendor payments and salaries.The deregistered planes were turboprop ATRs with registration numbers VT-DKD and VT-DKE, said the official cited above.Bharat Bhushan, Director General of Civil Aviation has the power to deregister planes under rule 30 of the Aircraft Act, said the official.
31/01/12 TravelBizMonitor

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Categories: Kingfisher Feb 2012