Kingfisher has confirmed that it has grounded 15 aircraft indefinitely while it works with it’s banks to resolve an ongoing cash crunch. It also confirmed that India’s aviation regulator is conducting an ongoing financial review of the airline’s operations.
This announcement comes on the heels of an earlier announcement indicating that the India based carrier would be the country’s first airline to join a Global Alliance when it joins Oneworld next February.
At the time of this news, Indian conglomerate ‘Sahara’ plans to infuse $47 million dollars into the beleaguered carrier to help it sustain operations.
I’m Wondering if Oneworld is overly excited with Kingfisher at this point. Kingfisher has never been profitable, and has slipped to being the 3rd largest airline in India. Kingfisher claims that joining Oneworld will help it compete more effectively since joining Oneworld will add 40 new Indian destinations to its portfolio.
I remember reading a piece in The Economist (Nov. 19-25th) discussing the inevitability of this exact scenario.
The owners just been dumping money from their more successful companies in the sinkhole that is the aviation industry.
I hope OW knew about this before accepting their entrance. Otherwise that is really suspect.