Yet another blow to Kingfisher: Operating license lapsed

Posted by Seth Miller on January 2, 2013 under News | 4 Comments to Read

For India‘s Kingfisher Airlines the descent into near oblivion over the past year has been quite dramatic. The latest event – happening this past week – is that their operating license from the Indian aviation authorities has officially lapsed. This comes a few months after the license was suspended due to concerns about their ability to provide "safe, efficient and reliable service."

The carrier is continuing to play down the issues associated with their operations license, noting that they expect the lapsed certificate to be reactivated once they have finalized their new funding plans. Or, as a spokesman put it in a statement:

Kingfisher is confident of securing approval from the regulator on the restart plan, licence approval and reinstatement of its operating permit.

Over the past year Kingfisher has gone from the second largest carrier in India, on the cusp of joining the oneworld global alliance to carrying only 3.5% of the country’s traffic and then being forced to halt operations completely. Along the way there were unpaid contracts, employee strikes and a variety of other problems. The carrier is keeping up appearances as they search for fresh capital but this one seems unlikely to end well.

Tags: India, Kingfisher, OneWorld

Mike said,

Kingfisher. Malev. Mexicana. American Airlines. Which OW carrier is next?
Bits ‘n Pieces for January 2, 2013 - View from the Wing said,

[...] Aramean notes that Kingfisher Airlines has lost its operating license. Undeterred they say they’re confident of getting it back, and also getting new financing. [...]
Seth said,

To be fair, AA didn’t actually go out of business and never really was at risk of such. The other three, well, that’s a different story.
The vultures are circling India’s Kingfisher Airlines - The Wandering Aramean said,

[...] Yet another blow to Kingfisher: Operating license lapsed [...]