Kingfisher Airlines No Longer Flying Overseas

Tuesday, 10th April 2012 at 03:42am

India's Kingfisher Airlines is no longer flying to its international destinations, marking the last international flight arriving at 1810 BST in London. On March 25, Kingfisher stopped flying to Kathmandu, Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo.

Currently Kingfisher owes about $1.3bn (£800m) with banks no longer lending the airline money needed for its day-to-day operations. Recently, service tax worth $11.84m (£7.4m) was asked to be paid by India's tax authorities.

On February, Kingfisher's bank accounts were frozen due to non-payment of taxes and were unfrozen when it was able to pay $12.5 million tax arrears earlier this month. Kingfisher is said to owe money to its own staff, tax authorities, airports and lenders.

Kingfisher employees were planning to go on a strike but on April 3, the strike was called off after the airline assured payment.

The airline's current financial problems have led to the cancellation of dozens of flights. Most of Kingfisher's international flights were suspended and local routes were cut down.

It was said that Kingfisher Airlines never made profit since its 2005 launching.

By: Pete Lee.