Kingfisher Airlines Defend Its Viability; Shares Fall

Kingfisher Airlines is still a viable business and there is no dispute over its survival, its Chief Executive said on Friday, in an effort to dismiss widespread speculation that the cash-strapped airline was staring at bankruptcy.

Unable to raise funds from the equity or debt markets and fast running out of cash to pay for fuel supplies, Kingfisher, India's second largest carrier by market share, has cancelled several flights daily since Sunday in an effort to cut capacity and minimise costs.

As a matter of fact, U.B. group has continued to support us all along over the course of the year, so there is no question about the future or the viability of the airline, CEO Sanjay Aggarwal told newschannel NDTV Profit.

Aggarwal said a hundred pilots have quit over the past months. In any airline there is attrition going on. Over the last several months 100 pilots have quit, it's not phenomenon that happened in last two weeks or last 30 days, Aggarwal added.

The Economic Times reported on Friday that cash-strapped Kingfisher faces fresh trouble as some companies who have lent aircraft to the loss-making airline plans to take them back, while another report said that about 130 staff pilots have quit in the past few weeks.

Kingfisher, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and controlled by the UB Group, had in September announced it was shutting its low cost business to focus on the premium model.

Kingfisher shares fell more than 17 percent in early trade and was down 14 percent at 18.7 rupees at 10:29 am (0459 GMT).