Kingfisher India-US flights likely in 2007

Vijay Mallya registers Kingfisher International Airlines in US

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 8, 2006

If all goes well, Kingfisher International Airline will start flying in the India-US route from mid-2007. Only, the airline will be based in the US and not in India.

In January, Kingfisher registered a company in the US under the name of Kingfisher International. After obtaining necessary government approvals, Kingfisher Airlines hopes to start flying to India from US from next year.

"We have already completed the formalities of registering Kingfisher International in the US. If the government does not give me the required permission to fly internationally, we will use Kingfisher International to start our international operations, which we hope to start by end of 2007," Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters last month.

However, it is not clear if the government will take kindly to a move which is clearly intended to get around the country's regulations.

Private airlines in India are allowed to fly abroad only if they have a minimum of five years experience in domestic flying. This has prevented newcomers like Kingfisher, Air Deccan, SpiceJet and GoAir from tapping the lucratuve foreign routes.

Even in the foreign routes, the private airlines are barred in the Gulf sector, which brings huge revenues to the state-ownee Air India.