"Balls," said the Queen, "had I had some, I would have been King."
 

Kingfisher owes Bank of Scotland $21.6m: UK High Court

Mallya has been playing games with the Scottish, too.
However, now that he is out of the Indian kindergarten, he will have to face the music: The kilt-wearing, golfing and whisky-drinking no-nonsense red-noses have him by the balls (assuming any): They got guarantees from the UB Holdings (the beer mother) before lending VJ anything, and they have dragged the man before the UK High Court who has ruled that the case can go ahead and the UB assets can be pursued "in India or elsewhere" to recover the Scot's 21.6 million USD.

If you are a crook, pick your victims carefully, they may bite back....:E

T

For the sake of the employees, I hope that one of the guarantees is to make the employees whole.

Here's the joke of the day

Kingfisher says sorry for flight cancellations, offers free tickets - The Economic Times

Probably comes as a big surprise to the folks running this airline that giving relief to dumped pax is industry standard. But how should they know? They are all beer salesmen, not aviation professionals :ugh:
5***** airline? :D

Things are going from worse to bad (to quote a famous Meerkat) for the "King of Sh1t Times":

IATA suspends Kingfisher from settlement system | Reuters

That must be an improvement:yuk:

Oh my:eek::eek:!!



http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/business/companies/kingfisher-not-take-part-india-aviation-957



In the words of Claude Rains,played the Inspector Renault from Casablanca as he is collecting his winnings… “I’mshocked that gambling is going on here!”

THE RESULT
 

This is a perfect example of what happens when the situation becomes " management against employees" and also in India there is a bad habit of "no matter how much experience you have ex-pat don`t tell us how to run our business" i worked for KFA for 4 years and never even for 1 month did they ever get the rostering dept to work properly, neither would they even listen to suggestions from ex-pats who had lots of experience working for airlines that had proper working rostering depts.:(

Funny that the OneWorld Alliance Website still has them as "Member Elect".

Kingfisher Airlines

:ugh:

and skytrax still has KF under review for a 5* rating. At this point they are not even worthy of 1*. If it weren't for the VJM's connections they would have lost this so called 5* rating ages ago.

The World's official 5-Star Airlines™ - SKYTRAX

This also says a lot about the authenticity of "rating agencies" like skytrax etc.

VJ needs to step away from the booze for a bit.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/exclus...sm_762836.html

MALLYA PUMPS IN £20M TO FUEL FORCE INDIA’S F1 DRIVE

NDIAN tycoon Vijay Mallya has ploughed about £20 million into his loss-making Formula One team in a bid to boost its performance.

Silverstone-based Force India team’s accounts show Watson Limited, Mallya’s personal investment vehicle, loaned it £6.85 million, while his Kingfisher Airlines and beer and spirits businesses provided it with £13 million in sponsorship money.

The new F1 season begins this week with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.


Force India, which finished in sixth place last year, has improved each season. However, that improvement has not translated into profits.

The figures show its net loss narrowed from £40.3 million to £26.7 million in the year ending December 31, 2010, as turnover increased by £17 million to £48.5 million thanks to the sponsorship boost.

Bank debt was pared down by £1 million, leaving a total of £8.2 million outstanding. Mallya’s drinks brands, which include Whyte & Mackay whisky, provided £6.7 million, more than double the previous year, while Kingfisher’s sponsorship increased 71 per cent to £6 million.

Kingfisher is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and is majority owned by the Mallya-controlled UB Group.

It has debt of 65 billion rupees (£790 million) and has posted 17 straight quarterly losses.

To combat this, it has cut flights and is looking for a white knight to provide it with enough capital to avoid bankruptcy.

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | City & Business :: Mallya pumps in £20m to fuel Force India’s F1 drive

KFA aircraft impounded at LHR?
 

I heard today that KFA aircraft have been impounded at LHR.

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks

IT001 - A330-223 VT-VJN

Told to park on remote stand 431.

The ground handler did not touch the aircraft due to KFR not paying them.

The aircraft was impounded by BAA I think on behalf of creditors.

Eventually the aircraft was offloaded and towed over to the BMI hangar.

DUB
 

Overnight x 3 KFA arrived in DUB and are parked on remote stands.

A330 VT-VJO grounded at Mumbai with unseviceable engines.

Overseas operations suspended.:(

India's Kingfisher curtails overseas operations - Channel NewsAsia

MUMBAI : India's beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines said Wednesday it had curtailed its overseas flights to avoid losing further cash as it struggles to keep flying amid mounting operational difficulties.

"We would like to confirm that we are curtailing our wide-body overseas operations that are bleeding heavily," spokesman Prakash Mirpuri said in a statement.

The debt-laden carrier has returned a leased Airbus A330-200, a mid-sized long-haul airliner, but it did not say how many flights would be affected.

Kingfisher, which is already facing severe disruption due to strikes by pilots over unpaid wages, flies to eight overseas destinations, including London, Dubai and Hong Kong.

It operated only 101 out of the 175 scheduled flights on Tuesday and expects to run the same number on Wednesday.

"The airline had reached a dead-end. Scaling back overseas operations was expected, also considering they have few pilots to fly planes," an aviation analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage said, declining to be named.

The airline announced separately that former tennis star and sports commentator Vijay Amritraj had resigned from its board, citing an "increase in his travel schedule and commitments."

The resignation of Amritraj, who joined the board in 2007, was a further blow as bad news piles up on one of the former stars of India's once-booming sector.

The carrier has never turned a profit since its launch in 2005 and owes millions of dollars to suppliers, lenders and staff.

Its bank accounts have been frozen by Indian authorities due to the non-payment of taxes and it has been dropped by a vital global payments and booking system run by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The firm's chairman, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, will meet pilots' representatives on Thursday in New Delhi in a bid to resolve the strike and return the airline to its full schedule.

"Kingfisher apologises to all those who were affected," it said.

Kingfisher shares jumped three percent to 21.3 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday despite the problems, as investors welcomed the decision to cut back its international flights.

A quarter of Kingfisher is owned by local banks and some have refused to lend the company more cash unless fresh capital is raised and a viable restructuring plan is presented.

India's airline industry -- once a symbol of the country's economic progress - is now plagued by high fuel prices, fierce competition, price wars and inadequate airport infrastructure, with Kingfisher one of the worst-hit firms.

The government is considering a proposal to allow foreign airlines to buy up to 49 percent in local carriers.

Kingfisher on Wednesday confirmed "interest" from prospective buyers, but did not disclose theirs identities.

Analysts estimate Kingfisher needs up to US$600 million to survive.

The airline's net loss widened sharply to 4.44 billion rupees (US$88 million) in the three months to December from a loss of 2.54 billion rupees a year earlier, while its debt totals at least US$1.3 billion.

- AFP/ch

There can't be any rational reason for this - apart from either blatant nationalism or fear of a truly well-managed competition for AI.

If you can take a 49% stake, you obviously have the financial clout to take a majority. In any case, you would want to call the shots.