New Delhi: A majority of the 15 leased planes that still remain on Kingfisher Airlines’s (KFA) name may be headed to the scrapyards. While 13 aircraft leased to the grounded airline have been de-registered from the airline’s name and will now be flown out of India, lessors of 15 planes have discovered that their Airbus planes are in simply no condition to fly.
“These lessors have discovered that aircraft parts have been so badly cannibalized that it is very difficult to restore the planes. In its last few months of operation (KFA stopped flying from October 1, 2012), the airline kept taking parts from its fleet to keep a handful of planes airworthy. Now the planes have been ravaged beyond repair and they can’t fly,” said a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official.
The planes rendered unfit to fly are the Airbus A-320s, each of which today costs upwards of Rs 500 crore and leasing a new one costs about Rs 2 crore per month at current rates. Now AAI brass are going to hold an internal meeting this week to see how precious airport parking slots occupied by these planes across Indian airports could be freed up. “The only way for these aircraft may be the junk yard. Lessors will drag KFA promoters to court to recover their losses,” the official said.
Lessors have not even applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to get these 15 planes de-registered.
The reason: While allowing some planes to be de-registered last month, DGCA chief Arun Mishra had ruled that lessors will have to pay parking charges to airports from the date their planes cease to be in KFA’s name to the date they fly out. Something these 15 planes can’t do.
KFA till recently had 40 planes — 10 owned by it and 30 leased. Of the 30 leased, 15 are stuck on ground and 13 were de-registered. Two aircraft have been seized by service tax authorities. Aviation secretary K N Shrivastava recently met the tax authorities for freeing these planes but since they are coowned by the airline, they remain impounded.
Shrivastava, who is trying to restore India’s credibility in the eyes of foreign aircraft lessors so that other desi carriers do not find it tough to rent planes, recently made it possible for lessors to start re-possessing their planes rented to KFA but which had been impounded by various agencies the airline owed money, like airports, banks and tax authorities.
JUNKED JETS?
• In its final months of operations, KFA took parts from its fleet to keep a handful of planes airworthy
• Now 15 of these planes have been found to be ravaged beyond all repair and they can’t fly
• These are Airbus A-320s, each costing over Rs 500cr and leased for Rs 2cr a month
Courtesy:
Saurabh Sinha TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/04/08&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01903&ViewMode=HTML
“These lessors have discovered that aircraft parts have been so badly cannibalized that it is very difficult to restore the planes. In its last few months of operation (KFA stopped flying from October 1, 2012), the airline kept taking parts from its fleet to keep a handful of planes airworthy. Now the planes have been ravaged beyond repair and they can’t fly,” said a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official.
The planes rendered unfit to fly are the Airbus A-320s, each of which today costs upwards of Rs 500 crore and leasing a new one costs about Rs 2 crore per month at current rates. Now AAI brass are going to hold an internal meeting this week to see how precious airport parking slots occupied by these planes across Indian airports could be freed up. “The only way for these aircraft may be the junk yard. Lessors will drag KFA promoters to court to recover their losses,” the official said.
Lessors have not even applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to get these 15 planes de-registered.
The reason: While allowing some planes to be de-registered last month, DGCA chief Arun Mishra had ruled that lessors will have to pay parking charges to airports from the date their planes cease to be in KFA’s name to the date they fly out. Something these 15 planes can’t do.
KFA till recently had 40 planes — 10 owned by it and 30 leased. Of the 30 leased, 15 are stuck on ground and 13 were de-registered. Two aircraft have been seized by service tax authorities. Aviation secretary K N Shrivastava recently met the tax authorities for freeing these planes but since they are coowned by the airline, they remain impounded.
Shrivastava, who is trying to restore India’s credibility in the eyes of foreign aircraft lessors so that other desi carriers do not find it tough to rent planes, recently made it possible for lessors to start re-possessing their planes rented to KFA but which had been impounded by various agencies the airline owed money, like airports, banks and tax authorities.
JUNKED JETS?
• In its final months of operations, KFA took parts from its fleet to keep a handful of planes airworthy
• Now 15 of these planes have been found to be ravaged beyond all repair and they can’t fly
• These are Airbus A-320s, each costing over Rs 500cr and leased for Rs 2cr a month
Courtesy:
Saurabh Sinha TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/04/08&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01903&ViewMode=HTML
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