India to give away Kingfisher slots, flying rights to others - Reuters India

Tweet Link this Share this NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government said it will give away Kingfisher Airlines'(KING.NS) slots and foreign flying rights to other operators in the latest blow to the grounded carrier. Kingfisher, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has been... Email Print The countdown has begun for the biggest economic event of the year and P. Chidambaram has a tough job on his hands.  Full Coverage  V Balakrishnan: What the IT industry wants Budget speeches: it's how you say it A look at last five budgets What we want to see in budget: Apurva Shah Kingfisher Airlines customers wait in a check-in queue at Mumbai's domestic airport March 20, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Vivek Prakash/Files NEW DELHI | Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:00pm IST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government said it will give away Kingfisher Airlines'(KING.NS) slots and foreign flying rights to other operators in the latest blow to the grounded carrier. Kingfisher, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has been halted due to a cash crunch, and lenders are trying to recover $1.4 billion of loans in default. Kingfisher, which saw its flying license expire at the end of last year, has two years from then to apply for a renewal. But with lenders, airports, and banks looking to recover their dues, and with its slots going to rivals, a comeback could prove extremely difficult for the airline, once India's no.2 carrier. The civil aviation ministry said in a statement it will make the slots and flying permits available to other airlines. Kingfisher, whose planes have been idle since October, flew to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand , United Kingdom, UAE among eight others. Indian carriers will now have an additional 25,000 seats available each week to fly to these countries, the statement said. Kingfisher posted a 7.55-billion-rupee loss in the three months to December 31 as its planes sat idle, and regulators rebuffed its revival plans. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky and C.K Nayak; Editing by Louise Heavens) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFEVolkCxi9i-apSGELKpjiN699Xg&url=http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/india-kingfisher-idINDEE91O0D720130225

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2910127