After rationalising flights and routes, major domestic airlines like Kingfisher, Jet Airways and SpiceJet are introducing sharp cutbacks in staff and salaries to cope with slower passenger growth and rising aviation turbine fuel costs. Manpower typically accounts for 10-15 per cent of an airline's total costs.
'The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a high court judge and dealt with at a hearing,' a spokesperson for the UK judiciary said.
Kingfisher Airlines' plans to raise $400 million are on track and private equity players have showed keen interest in investing in the airline, its chairman Vijay Mallya said on Friday after the annual general meeting in Bangalore.
Most of the Air Deccan aircraft that await repainting are small single-aisle ATR jets. When contacted, the Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said re-painting of aircraft is typically done when the aircraft visits the maintenance, repair, overhaul workshop for scheduled maintenance checks.
Kingfisher pays 37 per cent higher premium while Air India defers renewal. "The Air France crash is expected to provide a $600-$700 million hit (to global insurance companies), which is 40 per cent of the total premium collected, and therefore hardening of reinsurance rates was evident. We had seen prices go up from $2 billion to $4 billion after the 9/11 attacks (in the US)," said ICICI Lombard Reinsurance Head Rajiv Kumaraswamy.
Kingfisher Airlines, the two-year-old private airline promoted by liquor conglomerate UB, has decided to replace its pilots' gross salaries with a two-part pay structure based on the number of hours they fly.
The government on Tuesday said the major private domestic airlines owed over Rs 274 crore (Rs 2.74 billion) to the Airports Authority of India for availing its services.
Succumbing to government pressure, Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines on Monday decided to cut fares, but with the condition that the government put aviation turbine fuel in the declared goods category. Kingfisher has also assured that it would not resort to retrenchments to deal with the downturn.
Currently, airlines, including Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, undertake their own ground-handling. But under the new policy, they will not be permitted to do so. Carriers have said that at least 8,000 employees working in these companies will need to be given the pink slip if the new policy is implemented. They have also argued that outsourcing will dramatically increase their overall costs, especially at a time when airlines are reeling under losses.
Six years after running down the low-cost model, Jet and Kingfisher are betting on the same business model for survival.
IndiGo and Paramount Airways managed to register profit during the last fiscal.
Two years after selling his budget carrier, Air Deccan to Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines, its former chairman Captain G R Gopinath, still harbours a dream to return to the low-cost airline segment, which he pioneered in the country.
Though private airports did not spell out the exact sum owed by Kingfisher, in strict confidentiality one of the private airport operators confirmed that the airline was the biggest defaulter with them. Airport charges include landing, parking, terminal and route navigation levy. Though AAI has enforceable bank guarantees, private airport operators do not have this facility.
The domestic air travel in the first three months of this year witnessed a sharp fall with the number of passengers carried declining by almost 12 per cent over the same period last year.
Though FDI is allowed in the sector, foreign carriers cannot acquire stakes in Indian airlines.
With carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines all set to battle it out on international routes, leading expatriates with years of experience in global airlines are now being wooed for top management posts.
Pilot DD Gandhi, who flew the Kingfisher aircraft from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, circled thrice over the Shamshabad airport before touching the South Asia's longest runway (4,260 metres) amidst applause from the 50-odd passengers, mostly journalists besides guests and officials of the GMR group.
Airport operator GVK on Thursday said that as of now they had not put Kingfisher Airlines on cash-and-carry mode as the airline has paid some of its dues.
"Vijay wanted to know if I was going to bid and I said I would," Chatwal said. "As I chatted with him it was clear to me that he too wanted to donate the items to the Navjivan Trust. I then decided I would not bid.
Russian defence aerospace major Sukhoi is close to bagging its first civilian Indian client with its regional 60- to 90-seater jet Sukhoi Superjet 100.
The British government has turned down India's request for the extradition of Tiger Hanif, an alleged aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim wanted in India in connection with two bomb blasts in Surat in 1993, the UK home office has confirmed.
Besides Mallya, his companies Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries Holdings Limited have also been named as accused
Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have decided to stop the low-fare advance purchase schemes, saying the airfares would now be decided by the market. Some no-frill carriers will follow suit over the next few days. However, regular fares and the fuel surcharge are not being touched. Industry sources said the decision to withdraw lower-level fares was taken as these did not stimulate demand and also in anticipation of a spurt in demand for summer holiday travel.
The board of Deccan Aviation, India's largest budget carrier, will meet in Bangalore on Wednesday to consider the merger with the UB Group's Kingfisher Airlines, which bought a stake in the carrier recently.
Kingfisher Airlines has begin flights between Mumbai and Nasik. The airline's offers an all inclusive fares starting at Rs 885 for travel from Nasik to Mumbai and Rs 883 for travel from Mumbai to Nasik.
A consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday moved a step closer in their attempt to recover debt from loans paid out to Vijay Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the high court in London upheld an application to amend their bankruptcy petition, in favour of waiving their security over the embattled businessman's assets in India. Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs handed down his judgment in favour of the banks to declare there is no public policy that prevents a waiver of security rights, as argued by Mallya's lawyers. At a virtual hearing, July 26 was set as the date for final arguments for and against granting a bankruptcy order against the 65-year-old Mallya after the banks accused him of trying to "kick matters into the long grass" and called on the "bankruptcy petition to be brought to its inevitable end".
'But for the change in the method of accounting... the loss for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 would have been more by Rs 129.5 crore (Rs 1.29 billion) and for the half-year ended on that date would have been more by Rs 744.23 crore (Rs 7.44 billion),' chartered accountant B K Ramadhyani & Company said in their report to the board of directors of Kingfisher Airlines.
Faced with high Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices fuelled by rising international crude prices and a higher levy of sales tax, air-carriers are considering ATF imports as an alternative to purchases from domestic oil companies.
Faced with the prospect of $1.5 billion losses owing to a slowdown in passenger traffic and high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs, airline companies are cancelling or cutting deliveries of new aircraft due this year or sub-leasing them to other carriers globally.
Despite sharp erosion in the net worth of airline companies due to losses in the recent past, banks and financial institutions have decided to sanction loans to some of them including Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, while some of the companies in this sector are still waiting.
Jet Airways on Wednesday said that it has raised the fuel surcharge on tickets by Rs 400 across all domestic sectors. The newly decided fares have been made applicable from June 17.
India does not have a formal bankruptcy process. Liquidation pleas could take years before a final verdict.
Jet, Kingfisher rebuff Praful Patel, budget carriers reduce fares. As of now, though, the two private airlines remain steadfast in their refusal to cut fares even as Patel's pleas acquire a hint of aggression.
Most major carriers -- barring Deccan (which has a August-September financial year) and Kingfisher airlines -- do not agree on the figure. Hitesh Patel, executive vice-president, Kingfisher, said, "We have not yet decided on our increments but will follow the industry benchmarks."
Jet Airways, Kingfisher shift flights to low-cost platforms; experts expect a fare war. "Every year, airlines come up with cheap fares in the summer season, but not like this year. I had never seen airlines offering 50 per cent cash-back offers. Now with Jet Konnect and Kingfisher Red, there are more flights to the routes where LCCs used to dominate," says Bhawna Agarwal, co-founder and head of air business, Yatra.com.
Sometime in the second half of this year, Vijay Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines will start operating chartered flights with two helicopters in and around Mumbai. Later, it will also press into service a handful of very light jets.
We've witnessed the first phase of the mess in the country's public sector-driven aviation sector. In the absence of properly-thought-out rules, the next, a privately-driven one, awaits us.
After taking off, the captain of the Kingfisher Airlines flight from Hyderabad to Delhi alerted air traffic control saying that he was receiving a smoke detection indication in the cargo hold of the aircraft. As per standard airline procedures, he requested to return to Hyderabad. During the precautionary unloading of the cargo, an un-identified substance was located.
IOC encashed the bank guarantee Kingfisher had given for buying aviation turbine fuel or ATF for its fleet of 75 aircraft, 10 days ago, industry sources said. As on April 20, the private air-carrier owed IOC about Rs 160 crore (Rs 1.6 billion) in fuel bills. It sent a cheque of this amount to IOC but the cheque bounced, forcing IOC to encash the bank guarantee.
Even low cost carriers IndiGo, Paramount Airways are now in talks to join the Jet Airways-Kingfisher Airlines alliance to cut costs. After Kingfisher took over Air Deccan, fares have gone up steadily. Other low cost carriers have also hiked fares.
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