Flying at the heights of terrain and making profits out of it is something gorgeous. But at the sametime falling from the peak of success gives an unbearable damage that cannot be recovered soon. The same thing happened with the Kingfisher Airlines which is struggling to recover from its debts fallen on it.
Kingfisher is a valued company, but an airline would need fuel, fleet and finance to run the show. Facing serious financial turbulence, Kingfisher Airlines has sought government help for a bailout even as it continued its flight curtailment spree for the fifth consecutive day on Friday and its stocks plummeted by over 19 percent to an all-time low but recovered slightly later.
The seriousness of the crisis was underlined by the urgent request Kingfisher owner Vijay Mallya made to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi to help Kingfisher in infusion of funds through banks at low interest rates, besides other concessions in line with what Air India was getting.
However, there was no official word immediately on whether any step was being taken on Mallya's request made earlier this week. Some 50 pilots and cabin crew did not turn up for duty by reporting sick as over 40 flights were cancelled across its network today.
Innumerable passengers across the country cancelled Kingfisher flight tickets to travel by other airlines, though after paying 20-40 percent higher at the last moment. The airline, which had earlier said it would restore its flights after October 19, has now indicated that it would take a few more weeks to normalize the flight schedule, which would go into the peak winter season air traffic.
DGCA has issued the notice under Rule 140(A) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, asking Kingfisher why it had not taken the regulator's prior approval to curtail its flight schedules as required by this rule. It has also sought to know whether the airline had taken any step to facilitate the passengers inconvenienced by the cancellations.
Meanwhile, all the oil PSUs, HPCL, IOC and BPCL, have denied extending credit line to the liquor baron Mallya-owned airline and asked it to pay for lifting jet fuel on a daily basis. The airline has suffered a loss of 1,027 crore in 2010-11 and has a mounting debt of 7057.08 crore.
The board of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) will consider a proposal to cut debt by more than half by selling property, converting loans from its parent company into equity, and changing the terms under which it leases aircraft. The management of the airline, which has cancelled 200 flights in the past week, leading to fears it is close to bankruptcy, says its plan will result in debt coming down from Rs 6,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore.
Kingfisher is a valued company, but an airline would need fuel, fleet and finance to run the show. Facing serious financial turbulence, Kingfisher Airlines has sought government help for a bailout even as it continued its flight curtailment spree for the fifth consecutive day on Friday and its stocks plummeted by over 19 percent to an all-time low but recovered slightly later.
However, there was no official word immediately on whether any step was being taken on Mallya's request made earlier this week. Some 50 pilots and cabin crew did not turn up for duty by reporting sick as over 40 flights were cancelled across its network today.
Innumerable passengers across the country cancelled Kingfisher flight tickets to travel by other airlines, though after paying 20-40 percent higher at the last moment. The airline, which had earlier said it would restore its flights after October 19, has now indicated that it would take a few more weeks to normalize the flight schedule, which would go into the peak winter season air traffic.
DGCA has issued the notice under Rule 140(A) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, asking Kingfisher why it had not taken the regulator's prior approval to curtail its flight schedules as required by this rule. It has also sought to know whether the airline had taken any step to facilitate the passengers inconvenienced by the cancellations.
The board of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) will consider a proposal to cut debt by more than half by selling property, converting loans from its parent company into equity, and changing the terms under which it leases aircraft. The management of the airline, which has cancelled 200 flights in the past week, leading to fears it is close to bankruptcy, says its plan will result in debt coming down from Rs 6,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore.
