According to sources, debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines is looking to renew its airline operation permit, its CEO Sanjay Aggarwal told the civil aviation secretary and regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in a meeting on March 7. Kingfisher Airlines, grounded since October last year, would like to retain its airport slots, especially in Mumbai.
Kingfisher’s licence has been suspended since December 31 last year after the airline failed to come up with a revival plan. Kingfisher Airlines had submitted a proposal on December 26 to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after its license was suspended on October 20 following a strike by the airline’s pilots and engineers in September-end over non-payment of salaries for several months, grounding the airline’s entire fleet.
However, the revival plan did not have a clear funding proposal to restart the airline in a safe and reliable manner.
Its permit was slated to expire on December 31.
The airline now needs approval from the DGCA for restarting its operations for which it needs to submit No Objection Certificates (NOC) from its vendors. But Kingfisher has been unable to produce NOCs from airport operators yet. Kingfisher Airlines has been unsuccessful at raising fresh cash for more than a year.
It has reportedly been in talks with foreign investors for capital infusion. Its parent company, United Breweries Holdings, recently sold a majority stake in United Spirits, also a UB Group company, to Diageo Plc for $2.1 billion, but promoter Vijay Mallya had then said that UB and Kingfisher were two separate issues that would be dealt with separately.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.