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When Sushmita arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport with her nine-year old son to check in for her Kingfisher flight to Mumbai at about 9.30 am on Sunday, it had already flown out.

She was not the only one to be deserted by the airline, a dozen others also had met the same fate. The Mumbai-bound flight, which leaves the Capital at 10.30 am, had taken off at 9.20 am itself.

The stranded passengers fumed and demanded why they were not informed of the change in flight schedule. They were told by the staff that the timing had changed with effect from Sunday.

“I had called up the call centre at 8.30 am but was never informed of this change. They could have called the passengers or even sent SMSes but nothing of this sort was done,’’ said another passenger who had to take a detour.

Weird as it may sound but the airlines had chosen to inform a select few of the change leaving out a chunk of the passengers in dark about the schedule.

Some passengers, wanted that they be accommodated in the Air India flight but were clearly told that Kingfisher has no agreement with the national carrier for such a facility.

Most passengers were offered a refund; those who insisted on travelling had to take a circuitous route via Bengaluru while the rest were asked to travel on Monday.

The Kingfisher Airlines, however, attributed it to a fresh change in winter schedule of the flights. “Beginning today, the timings have changed but it seems some passengers were not informed. But everyone has been taken care of by us,’’ said shift-in-charge Vinay.

Industry insiders say, lately, the airlines have been resorting to practices that enable them to make the most of overbooking given the heavy demand. It gives them the option of offering tickets at higher prices when passengers book at a later stage.

In the ongoing legal battle between the oil public sector undertaking (PSU) BPCL and Kingfisher Airlines on payment defaults, the Bombay High Court has given time to both parties for an out-of-court settlement. CNBC-TV18’s Swati Khandelwal reports further developments in the case.

We know that Kingfisher airlines is facing a legal case from the State-run oil PSU BPCL on account of payment dues and these are about Rs 314 crore. What happened really is that Kingfisher offered to pay monthly installment of Rs 10 crore each for the Rs 314 crore to BPCL. To this the BPCL counsel and the management did not accept the proposal. However, they made a very interesting comment. BPCL counsel said, “They have the money to run formula one, where is that money coming from if they don’t have money to pay us, we are waiting to see the colour of the money.” In response to this, Kingfisher counsel said they are ready to sit down for talks and negotiate with the BPCL management.

Further responding to the statement, the BPCL counsel has sort time from the Court and now the matter is adjourned to come up for hearing on October 15.

Owing to mounting losses, Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has returned
19 leased aircraft to lessors in the past 10 months

Of these, 16 are Airbus and three ATR turbo-prop aircraft, according to official data.
The data of the Director General of Civil Aviation, which publishes monthly data on registration, deregistration and change of ownership of the aircraft, showed that in December 2008, Kingfisher returned six Airbus and one ATR aircraft to the lessors.
The airline currently has a fleet of 71 planes, comprising Airbus A-319s, A-320s and A-321s as well as ATRs.
However, sources said at least 12 of its aircraft are on ground for maintenance and repairs, taking the effective fleet size to 59.

When contacted, the airline said the planes were returned as part of its planned capacity reduction programme.
"As part of a planned capacity reduction programme initiated last year, Kingfisher Airlines has returned a total of 17 aircraft between December 1, 2008 and August 12, 2009 back to lessors," the airline spokesperson said in a statement to PTI here.
Kingfisher airlines ticket booking had in February this year announced a 21 per cent reduction in its operations due to the falling passenger demand at that time.
The airline posted losses to the tune of Rs 500 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal and has a debt of an estimated Rs 6,000 crore. It is planning to raise about $175 million before March next year.
Kingfisher has also deferred deliveries of some aircraft and moved 70 per cent of its network to single class low fare operations.
The premier airline has in the recent past sacked several employees due to "non-performance" but it has also lost some senior staff in the past two months.

These include Vice-Presidents incharge of global sales, revenue management and finance as well as those incharge of operations in southern India, industry sources said, adding these included a significant number of pilots as well.
The airline spokesperson said as part of an ongoing performance review process, employees from all functions undergo routine performance appraisal exercise.
"Those who consistently fail to meet minimum acceptable performance standards of the company are offered three months window to look for alternate career options," he said.
"Too much is being read into the normal attrition rate," the spokesperson said without disclosing the number of pilots who have left the airline in the recent past.

Billionaire Vijay Mallya, who is desperately trying to tie up funds for its debt-ridden airline, has hurriedly roped in a senior executive of his beer company United Breweries Ltd (UBL) to fill up a vacancy in his airline firm Kingfisher Airlines so that the process of fundraising is not derailed.

Ravikant Sabnavis, the divisional vice-president of UBL, has stepped into the shoes of Vikram Malhotra, who quit as the marketing head of Kingfisher Airlines booking a month ago.
Industry experts said Sabnavis’ transfer to Kingfisher has come as surprise as coming from consumer goods industry, they doubt whether he would possess the expertise to handle marketing and selling of plane seats.

“This move has come as a surprise as he is used to marketing a consumer product (beer), and this sudden shift may not give him enough time to understand the airline market,” said an analyst on condition of anonymity.

A Kingfisher Airline spokesperson confirmed the appointment of Sabnavis; “He (Sabnavis) took charge (of the marketing division of Kingfisher) a week back after the exit of the former VP (Malhotra),” he said.

In his 16 years of professional life, Sabnavis has never worked with an airline. His marketing and advertising experience includes stints with Heinz India Pvt Ltd, Agro Tech Foods Ltd — an associate company of ConAgra Foods — and Lintas India Ltd.
Sources say Sabnavis could have been brought in temporarily till Mallya finds an airline professional for marketing head’s post.

“Since Kingfisher is in the market to raise funds, it could not afford to have the marketing heads’ post vacant. It could have jeopardised its chance of closing any deals,” he said.
The carrier has announced plans to raise close to Rs 843.5 crore ($175 million) by selling shares and global depository receipts (GDRs) to repay debt. Of this, $80-100 million would be raised through a rights issue and $60-75 million through a GDR issue.
The airline’s accumulated losses for the last fiscal was Rs 9,760 crore ($2 billion).

Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines is understood to have come down heavily on non-performing employees, even as a large number of its pilots are leaving the airline to join low-cost carrier Indigo and other rivals.

According to industry sources, the airline had sacked about five maintenance engineers on the ground of performance four weeks ago. Besides, a lady maintenance engineer in Delhi was also given the pink slip today.

When contacted, a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said as part of an ongoing performance review process, employees from all functions undergo routine performance appraisal exercise.

“Those who consistently fail to meet minimum acceptable performance standards of the company are offered three months window to look for alternate career options,” he said without specifying further details.

Sources also said Kingfisher has lost quite a significant number of its pilots to low-cost carrier Indigo, but the exact number could not be ascertained.

“Too much is being read into the normal attrition rate,” the spokesperson said without disclosing the number of pilots who have left the airline in the recent past.

Indigo officials could not be reached for comments. Sources added the carrier has grounded at least 10 aircraft for repair and maintenance.

Kingfisher currently has a debt of Rs 6,000 crore and is planning to raise about USD 175 million before March next year.