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Kingfishers flying slots withdrawn, to go to other airlines

By:  Tupaki Desk   |   25 Feb 2013 4:04 PM GMT
The government Monday withdrew all international operations slots given to now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, and said they will be distributed among other airlines.

Kingfisher Airlines was allowed to fly to eight foreign destinations -- Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Dubai and Britain -- between 2008-2011.

"These international traffic rights have been withdrawn from Kingfisher Airlines on account of non-utilisation by the airlines," the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

"This (traffic rights) would give additional availability of 25,000 seats per week for use by other Indian carriers to these eight countries, some of which are much in demand by these carriers."

The domestic slots of the airline has also been withdrawn with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) being directed to reallocate the slots to other domestic passenger carriers.

Kingfisher's flying licence was suspended Oct 20 last year, following a strike by employees that crippled the carrier's operations. The licence officially expired Dec 31, 2012, while a revival plan the airline submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was rejected due to the lack of "credible restart" details in it.

The airline, promoted by business tycoon Vijaya Mallya, has two years to renew the licence to fly.