Lucky IndiGo, they might get Kingfisher's international slots

A day after the government took away debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines’ international slots, aviation ministry sources said that rival Indigo will benefit the most from this move, reports CNBC TV18’s Sumit Jha.

Indigo, which plans to import 16 A320s this year, is best suited to fly routes vacated by Kingfisher, sources added.

[caption id=“attachment_640659” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The airline is likely to seek lucrative routes like Dubai, Thailand. Reuters[/caption]

The airline is likely to seek lucrative routes like Dubai, Thailand and will compete with rival low-cost carrier SpiceJet for available bilaterals in summer schedule which will be effective from 1 April.

Firstpost yesterday reported that taking away Kingfisher’s international slots would have freed up close to 25,000 seats seats per week for IndiGo and SpiceJet.

Kingfisher has almost Rs 8000 crore debt on its books, employee salary arrears run into months and there are a number of legal cases pending against the company and Mallya for tax evasion, non-payment of salary to employees and due to stakeholders. Its best that Mallya now declares bankruptcy and begins to honour creditors.

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