Posted by- Neelam Mathews
August 5, 2012
Only in India! Non-payment of bills makes for strange bedfellows! A wire news says Authority of India has refused to allow some lessors to retrieve around six aircraft leased out to Kingfisher Airlines parked at Chennai airport.
KFA owes AAI around 300 crores for landing and parking fees, sources say.
One of the lessors has sent a legal notice to AAI for not passing the release order. AAI's contention is that it can not let the aircraft go, as it too has to recover dues of about Rs 300 crore on account of landing and parking fees from the near-bankrupt KFA.
An AAI spokesperson is believed to have confirmed the development.
The airline, which has not paid salaries to its employees for the past six months has been defaulting on payments to most vendors it deals with.
"This is absolutely normal. I am not surprised, lessor will have to pay airport fees to retrieve the aircraft," says a Mumbai-based analyst.
The decision of AAI is certainly not "normal". It will result in foreign Lessors make "absurd" demands of new Indian Lessees and also increase in lease rentals and insurance requirements. Impacts such as above will affect even Indian carriers who are regular in their payments to AAI and Lessors. Readers may recollect that in the mid-Nineties after private airlines started operations, the applicable rules and regulations of the DGCA were amended and the rights of AAI/Govt. authorities to detain aircraft were cancelled.
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