Transportation Industry

Company Watch - Kingfisher Airlines

AirGuide Business, Sept 8, 2008

Sep 7, 2008

Kingfisher Airlines, which launched international service yesterday with a Bangalore-London Heathrow A330-200 flight, said it plans to raise $400 million through an equity sale, possibly during the first quarter of next year. Chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters that the exact nature of the sale has not been determined. The airline said that the airline could achieve profitability within two years and that he expected the LHR flights to be profitable. The carrier plans to start Bangalore-San Francisco flights in the fourth quarter. Sep 4, 2008

Kingfisher Plans USD$400 Mln Equity Increase. Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines plans to raise USD$400 million by selling equity to help fund its expansion, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Kingfisher Airlines, which owns discount carrier Deccan Aviation, expects to turn profitable in the next 18-24 months, Vijay Mallya said. He said several investors were interested, but declined to set a timeframe for the fund raising, saying the company would wait for the market conditions to turn positive. Falling crude prices were positive for the airline and Mallya said the company was also taking measures to cut costs and boost efficiency to improve earnings. Oil prices have fallen to under USD$110 a barrel after hitting a record peak above USD$147 in mid-July. Sep 2, 2008

Kingfisher Airlines aims to sell some of the five Airbus A340-500s it has on order, but wants to keep at least two so it can launch ultra-long-haul services from Bangalore to San Francisco. The carrier's executive vice-president, Hitesh Patel, says all five A340-500s are to be delivered in October and it is working to sell two or three. Patel says Kingfisher experienced difficulties raising financing for the A340-500s, but that issue has been resolved. "With the price of fuel... we felt it was in our best interests to hold onto [just] a couple of the A340s," rather than five, he says. Kingfisher was due by the end of August to have taken delivery of four of the five A330s it has on order. Sep 2, 2008

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