Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya today said the company was negotiating with banks to reduce the high interest rates on its Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) debt but maintained the air carrier was not suffering from a "huge" debt burden.
India's private carrier Kingfisher Airlines, which placed orders for 30 Airbus A320 aircraft worth $1.9 billion at the ongoing Dubai Air Show, has said the carrier would go public to finance the deal.
Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Kingfisher and other airlines have told the government that they would curtail services frequency and air routes to cut losses after oil companies raised the prices of aviation fuel.
Banks put the airline's trademarks including Kingfisher logo and the once-famous tag-line 'Fly the Good Times' on the block
Cars, towing machines, forklifts, tractors, fire extinguishers, and iron ladders will be e-auctioned.
"Earlier, we were being paid a salary of Rs 4.30 lakh per month. Now it has been cut to Rs 3.50 lakh, all in the name of integration (with the erstwhile Deccan)," said a Kingfisher pilot said on condition of anonymity. Kingfisher's management, while slashing the salaries, has taken the defence that it was only implementing the Deccan-Kingfisher package structure in Kingfisher post-the merger,' the pilot said.
Nine flights from Bengaluru and at least three from Delhi were cancelled till this afternoon as several pilots did not report for duty, airline officials said.
Captain Sanjay Sudan had filed the suit against Kingfisher Airlines seeking recovery of around Rs 13 lakh (Rs 1.3 million), his outstanding salary for three months from the airline.
From a valuation of Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) two years ago, the brand on Wednesday has come to nought.
Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was to fly to Dharamsala and reached the IGI airport in New Delhi in the afternoon and according to him, he cleared the security check and was waiting for boarding when he was told that his ticket was cancelled
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.
A section of Kingfisher pilots have reported sick in protest against non-payment of salaries.
Needless to say, Kingfisher is planning to deploy all foreign cabin crew on its US flights.
Kingfisher Airlines, struggling to stay afloat, may spin off its ATR fleet and loyalty programme (frequent flier programme) into separate units.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Airlines, promoted by a group of investors led by the Kansagra family and Delhi-based Ajay Singh, is working on a plan to start international operations next year, making it the third private Indian carrier after Jet Airways and Kingfisher to fly overseas.
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.
Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has run up a debt of Rs 4,000 crore. The airline, which is merging with Deccan Aviation, is understood to have a top line of around Rs 3,000 crore and is expected to make losses of Rs 900 crore on a yearly basis. This is in addition to the losses of around Rs 650 crore suffered by Deccan Aviation.
Spelling fresh trouble for Kingfisher Airlines, aviation regulator DGCA is likely to issue a show-cause notice asking why its flying license should not be suspended or cancelled.
The airline needs at least Rs 1,000 crore to fly again.
The airline operates flights to eight international destinations: London, Dubai, Colombo, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kathm-andu and Dhaka.
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.
No-frills carrier Go First filing for insolvency proceedings and cancelling flights is bad for the airline industry as the move will reduce capacity and could push airfares in certain routes, travel agents' grouping TAAI said on Wednesday.
At the beginning of this year, his stake in the airline stood at 30.14%.
The parent entity, (Holdings) Ltd, have also expressed concern over the company's significant exposure to the airline.
Troubles never seem to end for Kingfisher Airlines with state-run Airports Authority of India on Tuesday tightening the noose saying it wanted a "firm commitment" from the grounded carrier for clearance of over Rs 390 crore (Rs 3.9 billion) worth of dues before it is allowed to fly again.
Justice Manmohan Singh ordered the grounded carrier to pay Rs 28,95,000 to its former pilot, Captain Dinesh Kant Sharma, on his plea seeking payment of his salary for the notice period of five months.
San Fransisco and New York are touted to be the first destinations.
Hyderabad-based Turbo Megha Airways takes off, promising affordable fares and other benefits.
Ajit Singh says will seek cabinet nod to scrap 5-year, 20 aircraft rule.
The inactivity of Go First may help other airlines in India's competitive market as it had a 7.8 per cent market share.
Goa's second airport began operations last week and if all goes according to plans, the state will be the base for a new regional airline, Fly91. Promoted by the ex-executive vice-president of now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko, and Fairfax India's former head, Harsha Raghavan, the airline will offer no-frills buy on board product and serve unconnected routes with two ATR 72 aircraft. An application for the initial no-objection clearance was filed with the civil aviation ministry last week.
Kingfisher Airlines has launched two fixed-price schemes, the King Saver Personal and the King Saver Corporate.
We have cleared all dues to our employees, says Ajay Singh
The civil aviation ministry appears supportive of SpiceJet because it does not want another airline to fail. The real test now will be the capacity of the airline's chairman, Kalanithi Maran, to raise funds. And he needs to do this quickly.
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