Debt-laden airline suspends all international flights
Indian airline Kingfisher will drop its services between the UK and India on April 10, it confirmed yesterday.
The cash-strapped carrier announced it was suspending all international operations to eight overseas cities – including London Heathrow – and reducing its domestic flights to give it time to come up with a rescue plan.
Following a meeting with owner, liquor billionaire Vijay Mallya yesterday, India’s aviation authorities decided not to suspend the airline’s licence but they say they are monitoring the situation. Kingfisher is believed to have run up a debt of £900m and it has been struggling to keep flying since banks refused to lend it more cash.
Kingfisher will reduce its domestic operation to no more than 125 flights a day, which is less than half the number it had October, but Mallya admitted this was no more than a "a holding plan".
"The problem is in the last two to three months, he’s given so many plans and he’s not adhered to any of them," India’s aviation minister Ajit Singh told reporters in New Delhi yesterday.
Kingfisher shares fell 5.5% on the news to their lowest level since it began trading.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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