The Hindu Business Line : Kingfisher flying overseas today

Announcing the launch of the international flights, the airline’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Vijay Mallya, told newspersons that the fares will be extremely competitive while the service will be better than those offered by other airlines.

“We want to be the Harrod’s of London in our service offering,” Mr Mallya said. He said the London operations will become profitable from its flight itself. He said the airline also plans to raise about $400 million through equity sale for its future operations.

“There are no timelines as of now as we have adequate cash at present,” Mr Mallya said.

The airline expects to break even between 18 months and 24 months. Mr Mallya said the London flight will be on Airbus A330-200 aircraft and it will have two class configurations: Kingfisher First (first class) and Kingfisher Class (premium economy). The first class will have 48-inch-pitch and 180-degree recline apart from wide TV screens and 300 hour content and live television, considered the first among all airlines.

While the airline has been able to bag the first slot in Heathrow airport on its own after Brazil’s Varig Airlines vacated the slot, the second slot has been leased from KLM-Air France. Mr Mallya said Bangalore will be the hub of Kingfisher Airlines’ operations, henceforth, and he expected that with the launch of the international operations, airlines from India will start getting a better share of the international traffic which is currently skewed towards foreign airlines.

Kingfisher Airlines plans to start its non-stop San Francisco service from Bangalore from November.

He said the MRO for the international operations will be outsourced to Lufthansa as well as Air France.

He said with the merger between Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines, the merged entity will have three service offerings including Kingfisher Red which will offer low fares.

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