The Hindu Business Line : Tirupati priests to bless Kingfisher aircraft

COME May and the priests in the temple town of Tirupati will give a different sort of blessing — to the new Airbus A-320 aircraft being acquired by the soon to be launched Kingfisher Airlines before it takes to the Indian skies.

The Chairman of the UB Group, Mr Vijay Mallya, told Business Line that every single aircraft that the airline will acquire would be sent to Tirupati before it starts flying commercially. The airlines' first aircraft will go to Tirupati on May 6.

Kingfisher Airlines is being promoted by the UB Group. The airline is to acquire nine Airbus A-320 and three Airbus A-319 aircraft by December this year. The latter are to be based in Bangalore and will predominantly cover sectors in Southern India.

The airline, that is to start commercial operations on May 9 with the inaugural flight on the Mumbai-Bangalore sector, is to operate flights between various metro cities across the country apart from offering connections to non-metro cities in South India. "We will connect the entire country by December this year," Mr Mallya added.

Kingfisher is to peg its fares at the same level as is being charged by the other full service airlines at present. "Our pricing will be at the same level as Indian Airlines and Jet Airways. We are not planning to discount to ridiculous levels," Mr Mallya said.

The start-up could also look at offering deals similar to what are being offered by other airlines.

The airline, however, hopes to offer a new type of flying experience to its passengers. This will include providing head sets free of charge to all passengers so that they can tune into their individual in-flight entertainment system apart from offering the widest seats in the Indian skies.

"Our positioning will be such that we will offer more than a business class flying experience at economy class fares," the UB Group Chairman said.

Mr Mallya hopes to be able to do with the start-up airline what he did with another UB brand that he launched in 1984 and today is the world's largest selling non-scotch brand - be the number one domestic carrier by 2010.

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