Kingfisher Airlines was allowed to fly to eight foreign destinations—Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Dubai and Britain—between 2008 and 2011
The government on Monday withdrew all international flying slots given to now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, and said it would be distributed among other airlines.
Kingfisher Airlines was allowed to fly to eight foreign destinations—Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Dubai and Britain—between 2008 and 2011.
The airline, which ceased operations on 1st October last year, used to offer 140 weekly flights to these destinations from various cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The airline curtailed its international operations in March last year.
“These international traffic rights have been withdrawn from Kingfisher Airlines on account of non-utilisation by the airlines,” the civil aviation ministry said in a statement. “This (traffic rights) would give additional availability of 25,000 seats per week for use by other Indian carriers to these eight countries, some of which are much in demand by these carriers.”
The domestic slots of the airline have also been withdrawn with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) being directed to reallocate the slots to other domestic passenger carriers.
Kingfisher’s flying licence was suspended 20th October last year, following a strike by employees that crippled the carrier's operations. The licence officially expired on 31 December2012, while a revival plan the airline submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was rejected due to the lack of “credible restart” details in it.
The airline, promoted by liquor tycoon Vijaya Mallya, has two years to renew the licence to fly.
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