Speculations aftermath Kingfisher Airlines' cancellation of its flights seems to have gone overboard. Some questioned the viability of the airlines while others criticized the airlines for causing inconveniences to the passengers. But Vijay Mallya, Chief of Kingfisher Airlines, defended the cancellation of the flights citing state governments' heavy tax.
Vijay Mallya took to twitter to clear the speculations that have been doing the rounds of late. "Is it Kingfishers duty 2 fly on loss making routes when State Governments tax heavily? Or should we be financially prudent n fly profitably?" he questioned, adding, "Every Government has gone out of the way to support Airlines and connectivity. In India Airlines are over taxed and over charged Wonder why?"
The liquor baron also rubbished off the media reports of banks denying Kingfisher's loan restructuring request and some people questioning the move of the UPA government to bail out the airlines. He said that the airlines neither made any loan restructuring request to banks nor asked the government for a bailout.
Following cancellation of about 40 flights on Friday, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said that he would request the finance minister to seek emergency bank assistance for the debt-hobbled airlines. This caused a stir with a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader opposing the bailout move of the government.
Shares of kingfisher fell by 18 percent after the news of its financial crises spread far and wide. This happened in spite of the airlines CEO Sanjay Aggarwal's statement that "Kingfisher does not see any risk to its future or long term viability."
