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Is it RIP for Kingfisher now?
Any news on this front?
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Is the imminent demise of Kingfisher the result of the " Indian aviation bubble " confined only to the subcontinent? Or is it the harbinger of things to come in the Middle East?
It seems the boom and bust cycles are coming with shorter intervals in between. |
Death Spiral
Kingfisher to return aircraft, sees pilot exodus: reports MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Kingfisher Airlines Ltd plans to return some aircraft voluntarily to lessors after defaulting on payments and has seen a fresh exodus of pilots, local media reported. Kingfisher shares plunged as much as nearly 20 percent on Tuesday ahead of a meeting between the airline's top executives and the country's aviation regulator. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the struggling carrier to explain why it has cancelled a large number of flights since Saturday. Kingfisher will return two more Airbus A320s this month to their lessors, as their leases have been terminated because of payment defaults, the Mint newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing a government official who declined to be named. Of the 64 planes in its fleet, Kingfisher is using just over a dozen to operate flights currently, the newspaper said. A Kingfisher Airlines spokesman did not respond to calls by Reuters for comment. The Times of India newspaper said that 35 of Kingfisher's A320 commanders quit the airline on February 14, followed by another over the weekend. In all, about 300-350 pilots have quit the airline in the last six months, it said, without citing any sources. Kingfisher, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has cancelled 32 out of the 240 flights that it operates each day, the airlines said on Saturday, adding that it expected to return to full service within days. The carrier, which will submit details on the cancelled flights to the DGCA on Tuesday, said on Monday it was forced to cancel flights because tax authorities had frozen its bank accounts, hurting its ability to make operational payments. Banks own about a quarter of cash-strapped Kingfisher, which has so far been unable to attract fresh equity amid growing worries about its future. Kingfisher, named after the country's most famous beer, lost 4.4 billion rupees ($89.6 million) in the fiscal third quarter that ended in December. Indian airline companies, on course to lose $3 billion for the year ending in March, have struggled with low fares, high jet fuel prices and fierce competition. Five out of six major carriers in India are losing money. ($1 = 49.10 rupees) (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan) |
A textbook example of how State Aid (to Air-India in this instance) distorts competition.
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Ouch!!!
Good luck to all concerned. There is nothing worse than being an employee during such times. I do hope things turn out for the better. |
Going to hurt Airbus as there are orders for 87 aircraft starting this year if things go south.
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Indian colleague flew with them earlier this week; CC were handing out cards with appeal to get their salary paid. V.sad.
Cleary unfit to be operating; why isn't their AOC revoked. |
taxes due
very likely to downsize their operations and continue operating but have heard that almost all their pilots looking for jobs elsewhere and the guys operating are newly released captains or widebody F/o's who are trying to get some hours under their belt.
Also hearing rumors of their CEO quitting. They owe almost everybody incl govt and other agencies. Can you imagine one of their executive class passenger seat headphones cost almost $800? |
Mallya, (once dubbed as the "Richard Branson of India":yuk:), has not paid his crews and staff for 3 months?? And the "regulator" suddenly claims it has no authority to shut down an airline simply because it's finances are failing? what a mess....:sad:
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/views/why...no-branson-051 |
Still flying into LHR today......
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But there's more: oil companies at BOM apparently stopped supplying fuel to Kingfisher this afternoon. |
13/03/2012 - LHR
IT007 cancelled IT001 landed at LHR and told to taxi to remote stands 431. Will not be departing tonight. aircraft has been grounded by BAA. |
Update 1940
A330-223 VT- VJN Grounded at LHR by authorities. Aircraft is now being towed over to the BMI Hangar. |
A real pity. Another seemingly good plan bites the dust. My sympathies for those facing unemployment.
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Kingfisher shares tank as lessors take back 34 planes - Hindustan Times
Shares of Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday tumbled over 13% in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange, following reports that lessors have taken back 34 aircraft due to non-payment of lease rentals. The company’s shares plunged 13.5% on the BSE, before recovering to close at close down 8% at Rs.12. The Vijay Mallya-promoted airline, however, denied reports that it had defaulted on lease rentals saying it had voluntarily returned aircraft. From a fleet of 64 aircraft, KFA’s fleet is down to 16 and the airline operates around 100-odd domestic flights daily. It has discontinued its global operations. “We categorically deny that outstanding dues to lessors are Rs.1,000 crore,” said a KFA spokesperson. “This would imply that lease rental at R2 crore per month per Airbus would be outstanding for 14 months for 34 Airbus aircraft. In fact, we are currently in agreed payment terms to lessors. We have voluntarily returned aircraft surplus to our requirements.” The airline, which hasn’t made a profit since its inception in 2005, has seen an exodus of pilots and engineers in recent times. From being the second-largest domestic carrier in July last year with a marketshare of 19%, its share was 5.2% in May making it the smallest schedule carrier. The airline hasn’t paid employees salaries since February. Salaries of January were disbursed only after pilots threatened to stop flying. |
Vijay Mallya (born on 18 December 1955[1] in Calcutta, West Bengal, India) is an industrialist and a second-time member of India's parliament. He is the chairman of the UB Group – one of India's largest conglomerates,[citation needed] with diverse interests in brewing, distilling, aviation, pharmaceuticals, real estate, engineering, fertilizers, biotechnology and information technology.Kingfisher Airlines, established in 2003, has been unable to pay salaries to its employees for the past several months and is on the verge of going bankrupt.[8][9][10][11] Now the airlines has officially been asked to vacate premises and received eviction notices for defaulting on rent payments on a Mumbai property since November 2011.[12] Mallya is the Chairman of public companies both in India as well as in the USA. He has been the Chairman of Aventis Pharma India (previously Hoechst) as well as the Chairman of Bayer Crop Science in India for over 20 years, in addition to being the Chairman of several other corporations. |
Reposessions
A little bird told me that 10 or 11 ATR72's were up for reposession recently. Trouble was, some were merely 2 wings and a fuselage - used as an extended Engineering Stores as no credit left to buy spares for the rest of the fleet. Problem now is realising the asset.........er yours and my pension schemes own assets like these. :eek:
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Didn't we go round and round through this "Kingfisher's imminent demise" saga several months ago ?
Well yes we did. I was travelling in March on BA out to India, thence on an internal connector where BA were using Kingfisher at the time, and there were daily stories about how the next day or so would be the last, which gave all sorts of concerns for the arrangements. In the end BA finally pulled the plug on their interlining and set up a whole new set of connections on Jet Airways. When we got to Chennai the only sign of Kingfisher was one A320 pushed out into the weeds, plus all their closed counters etc in the domestic terminal, no flights on the board, but we commented on the number of personnel still around wearing Kingfisher uniforms (even in the middle of the night) for such an otherwise disappeared operator. The Kingfisher "Exec Lounge" (the only one in the domestic terminal we could see) was actually operating all night, it was completely empty but for an admission fee (as we weren't booked on them) and European-priced coffee it was was very welcome for a few hours. Now, several months on, we still seem to have the same story. |
Interesting to see the latest Airbus order list : Kingfisher still has 14 A330s, and 5 A380s on order and sub Kingfisher Red still has 43 A320s on order. All still stand... Someone is going to make a lot of money somewhere... :E
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