New Delhi: A majority of the 15 leased planes that still remain on Kingfisher Airlines's (KFA) name may be headed to the scrapyards. While 13 aircraft leased to the grounded airline have been de-registered from the airline's name and will now be flown out of India, lessors of 15 planes have discovered that their Airbus planes are in simply no condition to fly.
"These lessors have discovered that aircraft parts have been so badly cannibalized that it is very difficult to restore the planes. In its last few months of operation (KFA stopped flying from October 1, 2012), the airline kept taking parts from its fleet to keep a handful of planes airworthy. Now the planes have been ravaged beyond repair and they can't fly," said a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official.
The planes rendered unfit to fly are the Airbus A-320s, each of which today costs upwards of Rs 500 crore and leasing a new one costs about Rs 2 crore per month at current rates. "The only way for these aircraft may be the junk yard. Lessors will drag KFA promoters to court to recover their losses," the official said.
08/04/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
