NEW DELHI: The flying licence of India’s Kingfisher Airlines was suspended Saturday after the debt-laden carrier failed to satisfy the aviation regulator’s concerns about its operations, an official said. The licence of the airline had been suspended until it presents a “viable” revival plan, said RK Khanna, the deputy director general of civil aviation. Kingfisher, which has billions of dollars in debts, has not paid staff for seven months and is desperately seeking a foreign buyer to save it from complete collapse. Much of the criticism for the airline’s decline has been directed at Vijay Mallya, who was desperate for a foreign airline to pump fresh capital into Kingfisher after India relaxed its investment policies last month. But analysts were doubtful anyone will come forward to rescue a company drowning in a debt pile estimated at $2.49 billion by the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, an airline industry research group.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ