Salem airport back in operation after Kingfisher starts Chennai-Salem service

Salem: After a 16-year wait, the airport at Salem in western Tamil Nadu became operational again, with Kingfisher Airlines kicking off its Chennai-Salem services on Sunday.
Puducherry is the only airport that does not have commercial services in the southern region.
The flight takes an hour to reach Salem. The Chennai-Salem flight will depart from Chennai at 2.50pm and reach Salem at 3.50pm. In the return direction, the flight will take off at 4.20pm and reach Chennai at 5.20pm. If booked seven days in advance, the fare would be Rs 2,529. For bookings within a week, the fare would range between Rs 2,859 and Rs 7,200. On the first day, the flight from Salem to Chennai was almost full barring one vacant seat.
The new service will help residents of Salem to fly to Delhi via Chennai. The Salem-Delhi air ticket via Chennai would cost Rs 6,700.
Located on a sprawling 136-acre extend donated by local traders and industrialists, the Salem airport lay in disuse since 1993 as no airline was willing to invest in this sector. The NEPC airlines started its service only to shut it down because of poor patronage.
16/11/09 Times of India

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Delay in delivery for Kingfisher A380s: airline

Mumbai: The delivery of five Airbus A380 "superjumbos" to India's Kingfisher Airlines has been delayed, a spokesman for the carrier said Tuesday.
"Kingfisher has altered its specifications for the A380 order. Consequently, it is likely that the superjumbos are delivered later than originally planned," a Kingfisher spokesman told AFP.
"The revised delivery schedule is to be advised by Airbus," he added, stressing that the order had not been cancelled.
Kingfisher, owned by brewery tycoon Vijay Mallya, is India's premier private sector airline and operates an all-Airbus fleet.
Earlier this year, deliveries for 32 A320 medium-haul aircraft were delayed due to problems faced by the aviation sector, including higher fuel costs and dwindling passenger numbers.
The A380s were due to begin operating in 2011-12. The company has an option to order five more.
Analysts said the decision was likely to have been taken by Kingfisher as it has been revising its international operations for next year.
Gurvinder Arora, senior manager of KPMG India, said the delay appeared logical amid "challenging times and before the airline is clear about capacity fulfilment and air traffic."
27/11/08 AFP

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AI, Kingfisher set for reduction in fares

New Delhi: Facing flak over giving relief to airlines without any reduction in fares, the government has now decided to lead by example. While State-run Air India is working on a plan to cut fare by 12-15% from next month, Kingfisher Airlines has decided to follow that move. The Vijay Mallya-led airline said on Monday that it will reduce fare soon and also ensure that there is no job cut despite a downturn.
And, fares could head south for two more big reasons that were announced on Monday — possible lowering of sales tax on jet fuel and likely removal of the steep transaction fee of Rs 350-10,000 being levied on each ticket by AI and Jet.
FM P Chidambaram said government will table a Bill in Parliament's coming winter session to grant aviation turbine fuel (ATF, jet fuel) the declared goods status by amending the Central Sales Tax Act. Currently some states levy as much 30% sales tax and the average rate is 21% across the country.
If the Bill is passed by both Houses of Parliament, then airlines' operating cost could reduce by a 20% and fare cuts of 10 to 15% become imminent.
And finally, the full service Indian carriers met travel agent associations on Monday in which they indicated the transaction fee of Rs 350-500 on each domestic and Rs 1,200-10,000 on international ones could be withdrawn from their direct sales channels. Agents complained that the system of transaction fee implemented after these three airlines stopped giving commission on ticket sales from November 1, was not working out and demanded they revert to the old system.
25/11/08 Times of India

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Kingfisher to cut fares once ATF gets declared goods status

Mumbai: Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines on Monday said it will "immediately reduce airfares" once declared goods status is accorded to jet fuel.
Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya said in statement that the airline was responding to Finance Minister P Chidambaram's announcement that a bill would be introduced in Parliament in its forthcoming session to bring aviation turbine fuel (ATF) under the declared goods category.
Kingfisher would also reduce airfares across the board as soon as the declared goods classification is approved for ATF, the statement added.
Once declared goods status is accorded to ATF, it will attract a uniform sales tax of only four per cent across the country, bringing huge relief to the aviation industry which is reeling under high costs.
"This long-awaited initiative will stabilise the Indian aviation idnustry and provide the much-needed financial stability once and for all," Mallya said.
24/11/08 PTI/Economic Times

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As ATF cools, Kingfisher cuts fares across board

Mumbai: Late on Monday evening, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd said it will cut fares immediately across the board and will also ensure there are no job losses.
Earlier in the day, state-run Air India said it would consider reducing its fuel surcharge to pass on the benefits of a recent decline in jet fuel prices, a senior official said. “We will take a call as to what kind of relief or reduction in fuel surcharge we can give, keeping in mind the recent decline in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) prices,” Jitender Bhargava, executive director, said.
The development follows Union aviation minister Praful Patel’s comments that India’s airlines should cut fares on easing jet fuel prices. Air India said a balance would have to be struck between the gradual drop in ATF prices and its mounting losses suffered so far this fiscal before taking a call.
SpiceJet Ltd will “stimulate” the local market with lower fares in the coming months, director Ajay Singh said.
25/11/08 Reuters, Bloomberg & PTI/Livemint

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Dues issue between Kingfisher, AAI settled: Mallya

New Delhi: Having paid part of his airline's Rs 287-crore dues to the Airports Authority of India, liquor baron Vijay Mallya said on Friday Kingfisher Airlines and the state-owned airport body had worked out a “mutually satisfactory” arrangement on the i ssue.
“I do not run Kingfisher Airlines through media. We have bilateral arrangements with AAI and have come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement with them,” he said in a statement, days after submitting cheques to AAI.
Mr Mallya, who would participate in a conference here tomorrow, along with his Jet Airways counterpart Mr Naresh Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Mr Praful Patel, has paid Rs 50 crore to AAI and promised to pay another Rs 150 crore over the next two mon ths to clear the dues worth Rs 286.62 crore. The payments were made in the face of AAI threats to encash its bank guarantee to recover the dues, which constitute charges for parking, landing, navigation, communication and various other services AAI provides to the airlines.
21/11/08 Business Line

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Gopinath sells part of stake in Kingfisher

Bangalore: Capt G R Gopinath, one of the largest individual shareholders in Kingfisher Airlines, has sold a portion of his shares in the company. From November 3 to 7, Gopinath sold 19,29,995 shares as per information available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) websites, mopping up a little over Rs 5 crore in five days.
Again, on November 10 and 11, he sold an additional 3,62,628 shares mopping up about Rs 1 crore.
What's intriguing is that he sold when the share price was trading at a very low level of around Rs 30. The share price is down by 35% from a month ago, when it was trading at Rs 42.60. It had touched a 52-week high of Rs 335 on December 19, 2007.
After the current selling spree, the aviation entrepreneur holds a 4.65% equity stake in the airline, down from his stake of 5.41% as on November 3.
As per information on NSE for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, 3.65% of Gopinath's total equity holdings in Kingfisher Airlines is under lock-in. Despite repeated attempts, Gopinath was not available for a comment. Multiple investment banking sources though have told TOI that Gopinath is looking at raising funds in his personal capacity to kick-start his cargo venture.
20/11/08 Anshul Dhamija & Asha Rai/Times of India

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Jet-Kingfisher pact won’t be in full swing for at least 5 months

Mumbai: The much talked about operating alliance between Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd will have to wait at least five more months to become a full-fledged one. This is mainly because both carriers will have to respect the ongoing contracts with various suppliers, including fuel, food and ground handling services.
“This was a hurriedly concluded alliance agreement. Both Kingfisher and Jet are not quite sure about the areas and nature of the cooperation. There is no question about crew-sharing as both of them have very few common type of aircraft,” said a retired senior executive of the National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, who is currently working as a consultant to some aviation projects. He asked not to be named.
“Of course, there could be some savings by joining hands. But there will be very marginal benefits for Jet and Kingfisher in terms of joint fuel purchase since they are buying from state-owned oil marketing companies. One will have to wait for the details of the alliance structure,” he added.
Executives of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines met last week to prepare the blueprint for this operating alliance agreement, that was signed on 13 October. “Three senior executives of each carrier met last week and more members are slated to meet by mid-December,” said a senior Jet Airways executive on condition of anonymity. “Sharing of ground handling services such as sharing common buses that are used on the tarmac would be the first among few things to start with. Later on, Jet and Kingfisher will start approaching oil marketing companies for joint purchase of jet fuel.”
A senior Kingfisher Airlines executive, who did not want to be named, confirmed the development, but did not disclose the details of the high-level joint committee that is working on this alliance.
20/11/08 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Passengers irked by two hour delay of Mumbai-bound flight

Nashik: Passengers of the newly launched air service for Mumbai by Kingfisher airlines have complained of inordinate delays, sources at the Ojhar airstrip said on Wednesday.
The flight (from Nashik), which was inaugurated by Maharashtra PWD minister Chaggan Bhujbal on November 17 is getting delayed by more than two hours for the last two days, which causing a lot of inconvenience to Mumbai-bound passengers, they said.
The air service between Mumbai and Nashik through Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Ojhar airstrip, 21 kms from here is not commercially viable as such services started earlier by four air service operators were closed down following poor response from passengers, they added.
19/11/08 PTI/The Hindu

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Mallya gives two undated cheques

New Delhi: The issue of Kingfisher settling its dues of well over Rs 250 crore with the Airports Authority of India has just got murkier. On Monday, Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya met AAI chairman K Ramalingam and two cheques with a combined value of Rs 50 crore were given as part payment. However, top sources said the cheques don't have any date and can't be presented. Kingfisher did not give any comment on this and Ramalingam said the two parties are in talks to settle the issue of payment.
Last week, AAI had threatened to encash the airline's bank guarantee of Rs 60-70 crore if it failed to come up with some cash or a concrete plan to clear them by Monday. Incidentally, Kingfisher is the only private airline with massive dues to AAI as only national carrier AI has dues of over Rs 650 crore but that is being treated as an issue between two government agencies.
"What do we do with these cheques without any date? Kingfisher's dues remain as they were," said a senior official. Top ministry officials on Tuesday are learnt to have told Mallya to clear the AAI dues, something that did not go down well with the tycoon. Mallya had asked the aviation ministry to allow him to clear the dues in installments. While the ministry got installments from oil ministry as three biggest airlines AI, Jet and Kingfisher were involved, this time it says only one private airline Kingfisher cant be given this special facility as all others are paying almost on time.
19/11/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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No more firing, or hiring, at Kingfisher Airlines

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines Monday said while it would not lay off employees, it would also not hire new people as long as the current downturn continued.
'There is no question of layoffs. The prime minister has given us the assurance that the government would do whatever it takes to address the problems of the aviation sector,' Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya said in an address at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his interaction with industry leaders Nov 3 asked them to refrain from large-scale layoffs, and advised them to bear in mind their social obligations.
Soon after, he also intervened to ensure state-run oil firms gave more time to domestic carriers to settle their fuel dues.
But Mallya said the aviation industry was being 'overtaxed'.
'The basic airfares are lower than fuel surcharge for many Indian destinations. Taxes should immediately be rationalised to make flying affordable,' he said.
Mallya, who is also member of parliament, earlier indicated that if the slump in the market continues, the industry would witness more layoffs.
19/11/08 Andhra Cafe

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Nacil, Kingfisher make part payment of oil dues

New Delhi/Mumbai: India’s three biggest airlines, which collectively owe almost Rs3,000 crore to oil firms, have started repaying the dues they have run up on purchases of jet fuel.
The country’s biggest airline by passengers carried, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, has paid Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, or IOC, Rs145 crore—the first payment of a six-instalment plan.
Jet’s closest rivals, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and state-owned National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, or Nacil, also paid part of their dues to IOC, an executive at India’s largest oil firm said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media.
“Nacil and Kingfisher have made the payment of Rs73 crore and Rs11 crore, respectively, as against the first instalment amount of Rs80 crore and Rs18 crore, respectively. Kingfisher Airlines is saying that the Rs7 crore amount has to be adjusted against previous bills, the details of which can only be ascertained tomorrow (Tuesday),” the IOC executive said. Nacil runs the Air India airline service.
Details of the airline firms’ payments due to other state-run oil firms such as Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd were not immediately available.
In all, Nacil, Jet Airways and Kingfisher owe Rs2,926 crore—split into Rs886 crore, Rs1,057 crore and Rs983 crore, respectively—to the three oil firms. Of this, payment of Rs2,131 crore is overdue beyond the credit period airlines have with the oil firms, which expect losses of Rs1.22 trillion this fiscal. It is not known how much each airline owes each oil firm.
17/11/08 Utpal Bhaskar, P.R. Sanjai and Tarun Shukla /Livemint

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Mallya for use of old Hyd, B'lore airports for low-cost ops

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines' promoter Vijay Mallya on Monday favoured the use of the old airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore for low-cost operations.
If the government decided to keep the old airports at the two cities operational after the new ones became operational, "they could have been used as low-cost airports," Mallya said at the India Economic Summit here.
Replying to questions at the session on 'Travails of Travel and Tourism in India', he said the Airports Authority of India were developing and modernising about 50 airports.
"We do not need fancy terminals. We do not need all that razmatazz. What we need is a simple and safe runway and navigational aids that function. If these facilities are there, connectivity is no problem," the Kingfisher chief said.
Asserting that the "real question" was to make flying affordable, Mallya said "that's a question of taxation" and wanted the government to cut taxes on jet fuel as well as reduce various airport charges.
Regarding fuel surcharge, he accepted that the fuel surcharge component was many a time "higher than the basic airfare. And airfares are high because of high taxes.
17/11/08 PTI/Economic Times

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Kingfisher benches 50 trainee co-pilots

Mumbai: Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has benched 50 trainee co-pilots asking them to stay at home till further orders. The company has offered them a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 against their take-home salary of up to Rs 1 lakh. Read On >>

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Kingfisher plans 25% stake sale

Mumbai/Bangalore: Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines is holding exploratory talks with international carriers for diluting up to 25% stake. The move comes as the Centre is reportedly planning a policy change to allow foreign airlines to invest in domestic carriers with a cap of just below 26%, sources said.
Kingfisher is believed to be discussing stake sale with three foreign airlines — British Airways, Singapore Airlines and Virgin — as a strategic investment is expected to fetch better valuation compared to the numbers indicated by PE investors.
Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya told ET : “I have received several expressions of interest from foreign airlines as the Kingfisher network is unparalleled. However, I cannot share details.” British Airways, Virgin Airlines and Singapore Airlines could not be contacted on the weekend, but it must be mentioned that interest from some of these airlines is not yet a formal one.
This is because there is no clarity on when the government may permit the foreign airlines to hold equity in their Indian peers although the Indian companies, including Mr Mallya, have been asking for the permission for quite some time.
Sources said the foreign airlines were interested in a minority investment for now, which will lead to sharing of infrastructure and will help in better aggregation of passengers on international routes.
Kingfisher and Jet have been trying to raise $300-400 million for sometime now. Both have seen their equity raising plans shelved several times in the past 12 months, as they desist diluting stake at depressed valuations. It is believed that Mr Mallya is not keen on selling equity at a valuation lower than $1 billion.
17/11/08 Mithun Roy & Boby Kurian/Economic Times

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Kingfisher, Nacil lock horns over ground-handling dues

Mumbai: Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines is locked in a dispute with the government-owned Nacil — the new company into which Air India and
Indian Airlines were merged. While Nacil claims that Kingfisher has defaulted on certain payments for ground-handling facilities, the latter says it is a commercial dispute.
Nacil was providing ground-handling facilities to Kingfisher. Differences have surfaced to a point where airlines are delaying payments and vat the same time, scrambling for funds to survive the crunch.
According to Nacil sources, instead of paying up the dues, Kingfisher has terminated the annual contract and raised an “absurd” bill, asking Nacil to pay for the ground-handling equipment purchased by the private airline. “The Kingfisher’s claim on us is hilarious. It’s like a passenger dissatisfied with Kingfisher’s services buying a business jet and asking Mr Mallya to foot the bill,” said an Nacil official.
When contacted, a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said: “Kingfisher Airlines had an arrangement with Indian Airlines whereby they undertook ground handling for Kingfisher Airlines. Because there was a deficiency in the services provided by them, the arrangement with them was terminated and a debit note was raised to account for the equipment that we had to purchase to meet the shortfall in the services provided by Air India.”
“We would like to clarify and categorically state that all dues payable to Air India for ground handling (after adjusting the amount of the debit note raised by us) have been cleared,” the spokesperson said. “As such, there is no question of default. It is now merely a matter of a commercial dispute with Air India claiming that the amount of the debit note is due to them whereas our stance is that it is not due and payable on account of the deficiency in services,” the spokesperson added.
13/11/08 Dev Chatterjee & Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Travel agents send red roses to Kingfisher Airlines

After unsuccessfully wooing Jet Airways with samosas to reconsider cutting commission paid to them, travel agents in Mumbai sent flowers to its alliance partner, Kingfisher Airlines, on Tuesday.
On November 11, around 517 travel agents sent red roses to the Kingfisher office at Nariman point. Rajesh Rateria, owner of Cirrus Travels, Fort, said, "We respect Dr Vijay Mallya and wanted to remind him of the promise he had made to us in the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) convention in 2006, adding that at the convention, Dr Mallya had stated, 'Respect your trade partners; respect your travel agents.'
The agents were protesting against the withdrawal of commissions by airlines to travel agents from November 1. Moreover, the airlines have asked the agents who sell 85% of the airline tickets, to charge a transaction fee from the customers. Airlines like Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher are already levying a transaction fee from November 1 based on destination and class in the range of Rs350 to Rs10,000. However the travel agents find this unacceptable. "When we are doing a service to the airlines by selling their tickets, why should we charge the passenger," asked an agent.
12/11/08 Navita Singh/Daliy News & Analysis/Sify

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Kingfisher to start air service between Mumbai and Nashik

Nashik: Kingfisher Airlines has decided to start two daily flights between Mumbai and Nashik from 17 November from Ojhar air strip of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), about 21 kms from here.
“There was a demand from civilians and entrepreneurs to have air service between Mumbai and Nashik and their demand is being fulfilled,” HAL’s Managing Director Prakash Deshmukh stated in a release issued today.
As per the release, the first flight would leave from Mumbai at 1050 hrs and reach Ojhar at 1140 hrs. The flight will leave Ojha at 1230 hrs and reach Mumbai at 1320 hrs.
The next flight will leave Mumbai at 1530 hrs and reach Ojhar 1620 hrs and leave for Mumbai 1650 hrs to reach the destination at 1740 hrs, the release said.
Air services will also be made available for New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad from Nashik (Ojhar), the release added.
11/11/08 PTI/Livemint

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AAI plans to encash KF's bank guarantee

New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to encash the Kinfisher Airlines' bank guarantee worth Rs 60-70 crore unless the
airline comes with either cash or a concrete plan for clearing around Rs 256 crore dues within a week.
However, AAI's needs clearance from the civil aviation ministry. "Kingfisher's dues were Rs 256 crore over a month back and by now another Rs 30 crore would have been added. They have paid only about Rs 10 crore. We'll wait till next Monday and if the situation remains unchanged, the action of encashing bank guarantee could be taken," said top sources. A Kingfisher spokesperson said: "We are in dialogue with AAI to mutually agree on a timeframe for settlement of outstanding dues. A meeting is scheduled with top-most AAI officials next Monday."
Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya had written to the aviation ministry, seeking instalments to clear the dues. But since Kingfisher is the only private airline with such high dues, the ministry could not be seen to allowing the move for the benefit of one player alone. Air India-Indian Airlines combine also has dues of over Rs 650 crore, but that matter is being treated on a different footing between two government agencies.
Apart from Kingfisher, at least two more private airlines currently have dues that are more than their bank guarantees.
10/11/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Kingfisher, Jet seek ATC help in bad times

A Jet Airways delegation and Kingfisher Airlines officials met Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) officials to suggest ways to reduce losses. “They told us that they are facing recession and wanted the ATC to help in overcoming it. They discussed points like how to decongest air traffic at Mumbai,” said a senior ATC official.
One suggestion was to reduce runway occupancy time from the current 75 seconds to 60 seconds. In other countries the runway occupancy time is around 30-40 seconds. “Airlines can reduce the runway occupancy time. They should train their pilots to vacate the runway quickly,” said an official from the Mumbai airport. The ATC should allow exchange of arrival slots between the airlines. If an aircraft with less fuel is flying over Mumbai, it should be allowed to land first rather than the one in the queue.
They also suggested that runway 32 of 14:32 should have performance-based navigation for landing as it does not have instrument landing system.
“We also want minimum separation between two aircraft to be reduced from five miles to three miles,” said a Jet Airways source.
10/11/08 Navita Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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