Kingfisher to curtail ‘wide-bodied’ global operations - News - Share.Dhangout.com

Kingfisher to curtail ‘wide-bodied’ global operations - News - Share.Dhangout.com

Kingfisher to curtail ‘wide-bodied’ global operations
Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday announced that it will be curtailing its “wide-bodied” international operations. In effect, this means that the airline’s flights to the United Kingdom and Hong Kong will be pruned.


The airline uses the wide body A-330 aircraft for flights to destinations in Europe like London and in Far East like Hong Kong while the narrow body A-320 aircraft is used to operate flights to neighbouring countries in the South Asian region.

The airline also announced that it has returned an Airbus A-330-200 aircraft to a lessor in the United Kingdom. However, industry watchers claim that the aircraft was seized by the lessors in London after it operated a flight from Delhi.

Meanwhile, the airline’s Chairman and Member of Parliament, Mr Vijay Mallya, is to meet with pilots in Delhi on Thursday, the airline said in a statement.

“Despite the shortage of crew, Kingfisher Airlines operated 101 flights on March 13 and will operate 101 flights on March 14. We request one and all to appreciate the serious handicaps we face not only because of our frozen accounts but because of the operating environment. We are working hard to resolve the issues that confront us given the current environment,” the statement adds.

The statement also points out the airline “has, obviously suffered as guests are not able to book seamlessly through IATA travel agents as before. This serious handicap has been partially mitigated by encouraging our travel partners to establish booking arrangements on their individual platforms. Nevertheless, this greatly influences our ability to operate certain flights and it is, therefore, incorrect to assume that pilots are solely responsible.”

The airline was recently susp ed from the Geneva-based International Air Transport Authority (IATA) Billing Settlement Plan thereby making it difficult for travel agents globally to sell its tickets. The suspension was because the airline was not able to meet its financial requirements.

The airline, which saw it net losses swell by almost 75 per cent to Rs 444 crore for the quarter ed December 31, 2011, has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore.

Keywords: | Kingfisher Airlines | wide-bodied international operations | United Kingdom | Hong Kong | pruning of flights | IATA Billing Settlement Plan | Vijay Mallya | pilots |

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