Kingfisher seeks nod for more foreign flights

Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher made a fresh application with the aviation ministry to launch more short- and medium-haul international flights. Currently, it just operates a daily Bangalore-London flight. The airline has sought clearance to introduce nearly 30 flights in this winter schedule, with the maximum being from Mumbai and Bangalore followed by Chennai and Kolkata.Among routes that Kingfisher has proposed to operate are from Mumbai to Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok. It also wants to connect Bangalore to Dubai and Male; Kolkata to Dhaka and Chittagong and Chennai to Colombo, Riyadh and Kuwait. However, the airline has put on hold its plans for international operations from Delhi to places like Lahore and Kathmandu this winter.The aviation ministry is learnt to have posed many questions to Kingfisher’s team, basically centred around the airline’s financial capacity to sustain these routes. Kingfisher lost Rs 483 crore in the quarter-ended September 30, 2008—almost double the loss of over Rs 253 crore in the same period last year. It has huge dues with oil and airport companies and is fighting a legal battle with a major aircraft leasing company. Kingfisher was asked if the proposed routes have adequate passenger demand to sustain the additional flights and also if it had factored the possibility of foreign airlines operating on these routes resorting to predatory pricing to continue their stronghold. The scepticism also came from the fact that both Jet and Air India are cutting international flights due to high losses as well as the global meltdown that could further slow down travel.