Kingfisher flights to small cities to be affected

The cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines' operations from tier-II and tier-III cities are likely to be affected until March end, industry sources said.

"The number of Kingfisher flights has come down to 160 a day from 240 flights a day. It is likely to continue like this. They seem to have shut down Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Srinagar, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Flights to more locations could be affected as they have lots of aircraft on ground," an industry source said.

The airline has not issued any statement on its Kolkata operations despite flights from Kolkata to Delhi, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Bagdogra, Aizwal, Silchar, Dhaka and Bangkok being taken off the ticketing sites.

Incidentally, the airline has been directed by its lenders including the State Bank of India to reverse the nearly Rs 100-crore guarantee commission it paid to promoter Vijay Mallya and UB Holdings, as a pre-condition to consider the second round of bailout.

The airline had entered into an agreement with Mallya and his holding company, UB Holdings, whereby it paid them Rs 49.48 crore and Rs 58 crore respectively against the guarantees they provided for Rs 7,000-crore worth bank loans.

"Kingfisher flight bookings for several flights do not seem to be available until March 28. It seems flight tickets are not being sold. However, technically speaking flights are being shown as available on the airline's global distribution systems. The company does not seem to have informed anything to their travel agents and the travel trade fraternity either. So, there is a lot of confusion in the market over Kingfisher Airlines' operations," a Delhi-based travel industry source said.

Repeated attempts to reach Kingfisher officials for comment failed.

Sources also said the Mumbai-Delhi flight bookings are shut, as the airline has cancelled Delhi-Bangalore and Delhi-Pune flights. Its Bangkok station has also been shut.