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BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
23 July, 2005: Kingfisher Airlines has incorporated a company in US - Kingfisher International Airlines - to enable it to commence operations from US to India. The move is to circumvent a recent government ruling that only companies with operations in India for a minimum of five years would be given permission to operate international routes.
"This is part of our plan B. Our plan A is to seek approval from the Indian government to allow us to fly to US and even though we don’t see any reason why the government will not allow us to fly to the US," Kingfisher Airlines chairman and managing director Vijay Mallya said.
He, however, did not specify a timeframe for commencing of the company’s international operations. The airline is planning to commence its US operations in 2007, as its wide body aircraft will only be delivered in the next two years.
Mallya also announced the continuation of Alex Wilcox as president and member of the board and executive committee of Kingfisher Airlines. He was refuting to media that Wilcox had quit the airline following differences with Mallya over the operations of the airline.
The airline has also appointed the former head of sales for Airbus Industrie (India & Asia), Nigel Harwood as chief operating officer, effective August 1, 2005.
Harwood will take over from Alex Wilcox, who will head the airline's international operations. Kingfisher Airline has now set a 2007 deadline to start international operations.
Meanwhile, the airline has reported a passenger load factor (PLF) of over 75 per cent in the first six weeks of its operations. The last two weeks had seen a drop in PLF to 60 per cent, due to the advent of monsoons. The airline hopes to see the PLF go up after launching the monsoon package next week.
The carrier is planning to launch its Bombay-Goa double daily flights on August 11, 2005, while another five flights to Delhi in either direction between August 15-22.
On the carrier’s proposed Initial Public Offer, Mallya said he plans to list the compnay by the end 2005, or in the beginning of 2006.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
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