Kingfisher to link B’lore to more places

Kingfisher to link B’lore to more places

By Bangalore Mirror Bureau
Posted On Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Seventy per cent of the passengers on Kingfisher Airlines’ maiden flight on its new Bangalore-London-Bangalore route tomorrow are revenue-paying. For the return flight from London to Bangalore, 134 guests have already booked their tickets, said Vijay Mallya, chairman and CEO of UB Group.

“We will break even from tomorrow itself. The plane is filling up and there will be no losses, also the Airbus 330 is an efficient craft,” he said.

Describing the response to the flight as ‘overwhelming’, he said in the next eight weeks, many more services will be announced from Bangalore. Flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai, Male, and Maldives are in the pipeline, he said. The craft used will be A321.

Fuel prices have reduced from September 02, a step in the right direction. It will help to keep under control cost of operations. Mallya said, “In 18-24 months, we will break even with this flight.” He added, “The downturn in demand and prices of ATF barrel cost us a lot so at this point of time, despite the drop in prices of ATF, we are in no mood to decrease prices.”

He clarified that Kingfisher Red is not a brand and is a brand of service. The service classes are Kingfisher First, Kingfisher Class (premium economy), and Kingfisher Red (economy, low fare offering whose standard will be the best in India).
Kingfisher First will have a 180 degree bed, wide screen TV, live TV onboard, standup bar with qualified bar tender on-board. “People who want to travel in style and luxury are willing to pay for for the good life.”

There will be a first class experience but the charges will be business class, infinitely better than the business class of other airlines. There will better width of seat, choice of meals and two-course meals.

In India, there is a 16-18% robust growth in number of international travellers. Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Emirates all want more frequent flights out of India.

Praful Patel will flag off the Bangalore-London Kingfisher flight on September 03 at BIAL, he said. Not just Kingfisher, Bangalore has reason to be proud. “In fares, we will be Rs.1,000 more than British Airways in the same flight,” he said.
The Bangalore-San Francisco non stop flight will start on Nov 1. He also said that his airline had five Airbus 340s, of which two have been sold and three have been retained since the aircraft is a gas guzzler.

“I may be biased but South India is the economy’s engine of India and Bangalore is the knowledge capital of India,” said. “We are now the only airline from Bangalore to Heathrow after British Airways.”