A drunk British socialite reportedly stripped to her knickers and cavorted with a male passenger in full view of fellow travellers on a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Bangalore to Heathrow.
A Mumbai to Bengaluru Kingfisher Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at the Mumbai airport soon after take-off after its landing gear malfunctioned on Tuesday.
Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Friday made an urgent application before the UK High Court seeking access to millions of pounds to cover his living expenses and legal fees from funds held with the Court Funds Office as part of bankruptcy proceedings, initiated by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India. Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Robert Schaffer declined to allow a draw down from the court-held funds of an estimated amount of around 1.5 million pounds, accrued from the sale of Mallya's French luxury property Le Grand Jardin earlier this year, until further arguments in the case. However, he did allow the release of 240,000 pounds plus VAT to cover the legal costs of a substantive hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for next Friday.
Given that debt is a major problem for most airlines, investors with a medium-term horizon should look at them.
LCCs said apart from higher charges, which they had to fork out, there was also fear they might lose their on-time performance records.
Banks are seeking an order that Mallya should appear in person before the court.
Mumbai-London is the private carrier's second overseas flight after the one on Bangalore-London route that was launched in September. Kingfisher also plans to launch Mumbai-Hong Kong operations from January 12 and Mumbai-Singapore flight from January 16.
At a time when airline across the world is hit due to slowdown and Air India is facing its worst-ever crisis, Kingfisher Airlines announced the launch of flights on eight international routes before the year-end.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi raised the issue of early completion of the extradition process of Mallya, during his talks in New Delhi with his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson, the second permanent secretary in the British home office.
SBI leads a 17-member consortium of lenders that is trying to recover dues running into over Rs 7,500 crore (Rs 75 billion) in principal alone from Kingfisher Airlines.
Three international flights were cancelled and very few passengers were seen at the Mumbai airport on Thursday morning, hours after the terror attack.
The discrepancy was pointed out by the finance ministry in the light of changes in foreign direct investment norms, as specified in Press Note II issued earlier this year, while considering the company's proposal to raise Rs 708 crore (Rs 7.08 billion) through fully convertible warrants. Prior to the Press Note II, the FDI component in Kingfisher Airline was just 16.45 per cent.
Kingfisher Airlines, National Aviation Company of India Limited -- the state-owned company that runs Air India -- and Indigo could face additional cost pressures, with reinsurance rates expected to harden following the accident involving the Air France aircraft that was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 passengers on board.
As per the present policy, foreign carriers are not allowed to pick stake in Indian airlines. However, the government allows FDI up to 100 per cent in other areas of the aviation sector, like developing of greenfield airports or in cargo and maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities.
Six pilots of Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir and Air India have been de-rostered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation after they violated guidelines while landing on a short runway at Mumbai airport under rainy conditions. The DGCA also issued notices to the three airlines on the matter asking them to explain why the strict guidelines were not followed.
These pilots have completed their probation and all endorsements, but the company has decided not to renew their service contracts in view of the huge losses and capacity reduction.
The employees gathered at terminal-1B and chanted slogans against the airlines' chief Naresh Goyal and Vijay Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher Airlines. They also vented their ire against the government for not taking any action against the Jet Airways for sacking nearly 1,900 of its employees, mostly probationers and trainees.
The alliance, announced in a late night press conference on Monday, will involve code-sharing on domestic and international flights, an interline agreement, joint fuel management, common ground-handling services and cross-selling flights through the global ticketing system.
Kingfisher owes Rs 257.62 crore (Rs 2.57 billion) to the AAI, while Jet Airways Rs 38.49 crore (Rs 384.9 million) and its low cost arm JetLite Rs 13.96 crore (Rs 139.6 million), as on January 31, Civil Aviation Minister and Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Air India and Jet would, however, operate their flights to the US and Canada by taking a diversion, sources in the airlines said.
The Rs 3.6-crore (Rs 36-million) payable by Kingfisher in the court would cover the dues for three months -- July, August and September.
To add aircraft, more services this year, even as full-service airlines hold their expansion plans.
Kingfisher Airlines says its net loss has fallen by 39.54 per cent for the quarter ended December 31, 2010.
Barely a fortnight after it launched international operations and integrated low-cost carrier Simplify Deccan with it, Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines plans to lay off at least 300 employees, official orders for which are to be conveyed on Monday.
Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines has decided to change its earlier fleet acquisition plan. Though it aims to more than double the size from 66 to 137 aircraft by 2015-16, it does not now plan to induct Airbus 380s.
Kingfisher, Jet and state-owned Air owe Rs 4,000 crore to oil companies and airports. Dues to the Airports Authority of India, private airports and oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL were to have been cleared by March 31, under the government's mandate. Industry figures show that the three airlines are collectively projected to make operating losses of Rs 5,000 crore.
Career opportunity with Kingfisher Airlines as flight attendants or in-flight managers for positions across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Media reports this week suggested that British energy drink firm Rich Energy was leading a consortium seeking to purchase the Silverstone-based team for 200 million pounds ($278.66 million).
Kiran Rao, company's executive vice-president for sales, marketing and customer affairs, also said that government-owned Air India and private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines will create a niche in the global market due to their quality service in the next few years despite stiff international competition.
Low-cost carrier Simplify Deccan will be rebranded Kingfisher Red, a separate brand identity from Vijay Mallya-promoted full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlines.
The civil aviation ministry granted the traffic rights to Deccan Aviation, in which Kingfisher Airlines merged in 2007, to operate services to London and other global destinations. The airline, which has already firmed up plans to launch its Bangalore-London (Heathrow) flight from the first week of September, would be starting its international services on the rights granted to Deccan Aviation on the India-UK sector.
Mahatma Gandhi's items, including his pocket watch, a pair of sandals, a plate, a bowl and his rimmed glasses, were sold at an auction by New York-based Antiquorum Auctioneers on Thursday. UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya reportedly bought the items for $1.8 million.Preliminary reports suggested that Mallya may hand over the items to the Indian government.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said the strategic alliance forged almost a year ago between his company and Kingfisher Airlines has still not achieved tangible progress, and added that airfares need to rise by 20-25 per cent.
Full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlines has sought permission from the petroleum ministry to extend the date for paying dues to public sector oil companies for aviation turbine fuel.
Low-cost carrier Deccan and Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday decided to merge and create a single corporate entity to cut down operational costs and accelerate their journey to profitability.
A British court on Monday granted a bankruptcy order against Vijay Mallya, paving the way for a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to pursue a worldwide freezing order to seek repayment of debt owed by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. "As at 15.42 [UK time], I shall adjudicate Dr Mallya bankrupt," Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs said in his ruling during a virtual hearing of the Chancery Division of the high court. "I have to decide if there is a real prospect of payment of petition debt in full within a reasonable period of time... there is insufficient evidence that [Mallya's asset realisations in India] will pay the debt in full within a reasonable period of time," Judge Briggs noted, in reference to defence arguments pointing to a restoration process in India following a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court order for the attachment of Mallya's assets.
"This is the best time that Indian aviation is seeing and the next six months will be critical. The airlines should monetise this growth without getting into unnecessary capacity addition," said Nikhil Vora, managing director, IDFC-SSKI, a financial services group.
Low cost carriers have 55 per cent of the market, up from 45 per cent in Q1 last year, and 30 per cent two years back. Does it mean India really is an LCC market? The performance of the airlines also seem to suggest that. While budget carrier Spicejet announced a small profit for Q1, all the big boys in the industry seem to be in trouble.
In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Vijay Mallya-led firm said its board would meet on July 28 to 'consider issue of further share capital up to Rs 500 crore and matters consequential thereto'.
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