Kingfisher Airlines about to Close - Good or Bad ?

My flight with Kingfisher Airlines was cancelled in the past

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I think it will be shut down. Even yesterday the DGCA had talks with Mallaya. They have a total debt of 7057 crores, and owe 256 crore to AAI. Not sure how they let it get so deep into the sh$$. Total mismangement. Instead of frolicking with Deepika P. and stalwarths, they should have focused to have a strong BoD and management team. I think he is teethering the hook, and waiting for foreign investments to be opened up for airlines. Money can be organized easy, Mallaya is a sly fox.
 
Anyone got their money back for cancelled flights? My flight was cancelled and all I got was an SMS and email saying so..No mention of any procedure for claiming refund for the cancelled flight.. And when I try their call center now, I am only wasting my talk time since the automated reply system keeps me continuously on hold with no sign of a real customer service executive ever coming on the call...
 
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That is really really bad. It is how a street shop vendor treats a customer when a bad product has to be returned. Shrug of shoulders.
 
My first flight was with KingFisher
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Their service was way better than the other low cost airlines like spice jet / indigo etc. As Sunny said, the journey and seats were much comfortable with the extra leg spaces, IFE, complementary snacks/meals. IIRC, KFA A-321 have 10/12 less seats than the usual Indigo/Spicejet/JetKonnect planes. They did cancel my flight once, but informed me one day before and also arranged for another flight which was 2 hrs later the original boarding time. Its pathetic to see how Mallya/BoD destroyed the KFA.
 
sabby said:
My first flight was with KingFisher
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Their service was way better than the other low cost airlines like spice jet / indigo etc. As Sunny said, the journey and seats were much comfortable with the extra leg spaces, IFE, complementary snacks/meals. IIRC, KFA A-321 have 10/12 less seats than the usual Indigo/Spicejet/JetKonnect planes. They did cancel my flight once, but informed me one day before and also arranged for another flight which was 2 hrs later the original boarding time. Its pathetic to see how Mallya/BoD destroyed the KFA.
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True, KF's service was much better than the other low-cost flyers. My flight was delayed once, and they had arranged for snacks and beverages without even asking.. Hope they can find some way to get back to business. With their debt in the range of thousands of crores, I see a very grim chance of me ever getting my refund of a few thousand though...
 
sunny27 said:
I must admit although I do fly frequently but never by Kingfisher. I flew with Kingfisher for the first time on 1st of Jan this year when I took took a connecting flight from Ahmedabad to Bangalore via Mumbai. Both happened to be Kingfisher flights. Both flights were delayed by up to 20 mins, the food was good and the GPS gizmo which tells you where you are at any point during the flight was fun as well and so was the camera mounted near the nose of the aircraft but the best thing by far was the leg room. I usually fly by Indigo/GOair/Spicejet and none of them offer such comfortable seats and good leg room. If only other airlines could implement such leg room in their aircraft. As for the ticket prices, it was the same as any other flight when I flew.

There was a time when flying was something everyone looked forward to. You dressed for the occasion and you were pampered. Now its simply a chore where you are bundled like cattle into the aircraft. Shashi Tharoor's Cattle class remark did make sense. Flying on the whole is a chore and leaves me tired and weary.

Its sad that Kingfisher's gone bust.
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a) Try Jet/Jet Konnect. Their aircraft have comparable legroom

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Flying is relatively more affordable now compared to those days. And the option of business class is available to those who want to experience the old days (which is as unaffordable as flights were in general those many years ago)
 
I have flown almost all the major airlines in India, and Jet and Kingfisher are right up there. Among the low cost operators I find Indigo exceptional. They are so good with their ground handling, I find them very close to Jet and Kingfisher. SpiceJet used to be good, it still is good, but they don't go beyond a point. Air India, well, hmm, haha. OK, honestly, they aren't that bad. Just that the air hostesses aren't what you would call model material, and their service is cold, however their ground staff is pretty good.

Notable mention to Paramount, which was excellent while they operated. Too bad they couldn't sustain.
 
Indigo AFAIK is the only profit making airline in India. They are always on time. The entire process is super streamlined. Spicejet is next as the airline which makes least losses. Its been 12 years since I last flew by Indian Airlines (Now Indian). I hated it then and I am sure I would hate it now. I remember the food served in the Indian Airlines flight was worse than food served to me in the hospital. I had to fly on routes which had no other airline apart from Indian Airlines, Now for all my office related travelling I usually fly by Indigo or spicejet.
 
I had traveled in KF few times , some 4-6 years back. It was my prefered airline,it was awesome. Dunno, how they destroyed it.

It was the only airline where Most of the air hostess would actually be good looking and to top that, they will wear mini skirts
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Well even as I mentioned in my earlier posts Indigo is doing very well in same Airline Sector in which KFA, AI & Jet operate. But the difference is the management & business model Indigo have. Also Indigo is now in International Segment too & probably only Airline in India to have TV commercials for promotions.

KFA treated their customers royally even for Low Cost airline segment, while such treatment is boon for customers its disastrous for the company as funds depleted way faster than income, this can be observed easily as KFA never made profits since its inception in 2005.

With a failing business model, increasing liabilities, pending payments, salaries, unpaid taxes, fear of cancellation of operating license, everything goes against KFA, so no investor how big would even look into investing KFA, so FDI in Airlines would also wont help given above reasons.

So its only Mallya who can get something done for KFA or else its going down. Again he cant put money directly from his other companies as investors / Share holders from that company would demand explanations if in case there is a further loss.

Few years back AI used to accommodate its Pilots & hostess in 5-star hotels, maybe even today they are? Resulting into financial debts again, but AI being govt company its bailed out again & again, which is really unfortunate.

But bail out for KFA should be strict NO. Even Public sector banks involvement should be minimum.

Conclusion: Really murky situation for KFA to even barely operate here.

P.S : I am not any market specialist or strategist, its just my way of understanding the current situation of Airline segment, so any mistakes or errors I would apologize in advance.
 
Ajit Singh (aviation minister) told in an interview that as long as KFA has atleast 5 planes and some equity they cant cancel their licence!

so KFA's struggle continues
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problem is that no bank wants to lend them money for day to day cash transactions. that means workers fees, landing fees, airport fees etc cannot be paid by them. this airline will shutdown by next week or month at the most. Most of the board people left too. Most probably only Mallya's left now.
 
^ how will he remain wealthy and flaunt it if he's to bring it out every now and then to float a sunken wreck?

common sense is stopping him from doing that. if he closes the company he can sell it to someone or maybe some foolish company for some money and get something from it.
 
It would be a complete make over plan in which he will bring some money from his own pocket(which in fact he is asking from banks to fund) and streamline the operations. Though most of the airlines are in red, Spicejet is making profits, so its not impossible.
 
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