Kingfisher awaits DGCA approval to fly

Neelam Mathews

Dec 17, 18, 2012

Even as the bad old 2012 nears an end, and Mr Mallya celebrates his birthday, followed by a new year bash and then the launch of the Kingfisher calendar, he has reason to celebrate-. “We will restart in a phased manner and will provide funding ourselves. We have not asked the Banks for any support. We have also shared a full recapitalization plan which will be further discussed with a small designated group of Bankers,” said a crisp statement from Kingfisher to Aerospace Diary this evening.

No mention of how many aircraft- we hear it will be around 6 in “the first phase”. No mention of when they will take off- we suspect soon, since the carrier’s license expires end of this year. And though it is valid for 2 years after expiry, nobody will be in a hurry to renew it once it expires, we are told. No mention of how many staff will be retained. We hear they have not been informed.

“Kingfisher is ready to infuse Rs 425 crore into the airline and restart its limited operations as soon as DGCA gives a go-ahead, the lead lender to the grounded carrier SBI said today,” according a report by PTI.
By the looks of it, one wonders how fast DGCA will be in a position to give approval with issues on maintenance, MIAL’s threats not to let KFA take off, non-payment to vendors etc. We'll wait and see and not speculate.

But as is the general view, one never knows what surprises Mr Mallya has up his sleeve. At least there is no scope for boredom for us journos!