Mallya told Deccan Herald that his carrier has finalised plans to fly Bangalore-Mysore-Chennai and Bangalore-Belgaum-Mumbai. “We have applied for necessary clearances and expect the green signal from the authorities anytime now,” he said.
He agreed that the concessions announced by the state government would indeed be key factors for his airline to launch services for these destinations.
The Rajya Sabha member said his executives were in discussion with the State Government. The beer and airline baron said Kingfisher would deploy the 55-seat ATR on these routes.
At the time of the opening of the Rs 82-crore Mysore airport in May this year, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had announced a subsidy of Rs 25 crore to facilitate flight operations. On the concessions, Mallya did not say in what form the subsidy would be made available to his airline by the government—whether by way of 50 per cent reduction in sales tax or in some other form.
Kingfisher is the first airline to evince interest and make concrete plans to launch operations in Mysore and Belgaum. Other airline services have backed off citing poor passenger load for these two towns.
Kingfisher Red, which was earlier flying to Belgaum from Bangalore, suspended its operations over a year ago. Mallya disclosed that along with these two cities his airline would launch operations between Bangalore and Pondicherry.
For the first time after its launch, Kingifsher Airlines posted an operating profit of Rs 127 crore in the first quarter of 2010-11.
