Kingfisher to cut all international flights
Kingfisher Airlines has announced that it will cease operating international flights from 25 March 2012.
The troubled airline’s Chairman, Vijay Mallya said it made “no sense flying abroad” as the airline has been suspended from IATA’s payment clearing house.
In addition, Kingfisher revealed that it would further reduce its domestic operations, cutting its fleet size to 20 aircraft, offering just 130 daily domestic flights. This compares to its previous fleet size of 64 aircraft and a daily schedule of more than 400 flights.
Meeting with India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday, Mallya confirmed the curtailment of domestic services. “We will be operating flights with 20 aircraft. There would be no disruptions and schedule integrity will be maintained,” PTI reported Mallya saying.
Last month, Kingfisher revealed quarterly losses of INR4.44 billion (US$86.2 million) for the three months ending 31 December 2011. The result was blamed on the increase in jet fuel prices, which climbed 36.8% to INR7.39 billion. Kingfisher has not posted a profit since it launched in 2005, and in the last financial year ending 31 March 2011 it posted a loss of INR10.27 billion.
Kingfisher previously operated eight international routes, to Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Dubai, Kathmandu, Colombo and Dhaka.