Kingfisher Red - Current Problems

KF is an airline in a tailspin. Simply put they have run out of cash to keep their aircraft serviced and are down to cannibalizing aircraft to keep others running. And lessors are out to recover any aircraft they can. The revised schedule on the website is also not an accurate indicator: the flights to Madurai are still listed and bookable, but they havent operated for the past week atleast.

If your flight is to be operated by an ATR, there is 70% chance that it will be cancelled. If it is A320/A319, then there is a 50% chance of it operating. (16 of 27 ATR's grounded, 13 A320 grounded)

If it is operated with A321, then there is a 90% chance of it operating. (Only 1 A321 grounded, and 1 taken back by lessor).

what's the latest on Kingfisher?

not that I'm worried, merely curious now that I cancelled my flights to Sri Lanka and to Varanasi/Delhi and rebooked on other airlines. Didn't want to take a chance on losing my dough to a foreign airline that goes belly up. I worked in bankruptcy law for 10 years so I know how that goes.

BTW, they've stopped answering their phones at whatever time you call. The best way to communicate with them is via Twitter!

Thank you for this update , it reminded me to check the flight details of a BLR/BOM flight on the 15th of this month! When I was in BLR airport, had enquired about it and got a prompt answer saying everything was as per schedule and the very next day's newspaper I read many flights had been rescheduled or cancelled. Just don't understand why they don't give proper feedback .

I have also got by mail the re-confirmation of my flight from a Kingfisher office (through a friend in India who is in this business) a couple of weeks ago. It seems that they are cancelling some flights bit 90% are working normally.

May be I'm making wrong my wishes with the reality. Ten days before flying I'll get re-reconfirmation again from the same source, otherwise I'll activate my "B" plan.

Jorge

Our flight from Bangalore to Kochi on 31st Jan has been reinstated - and is available again for booking on MakeMyTrip website - at least for the moment, so we are assuming it's a go.

I'll check in the New Year before leaving the UK, but at the moment, their revised schedule appears to be holding. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Certain airlines have shifted from King fisher to other domestic airlines to complete an international<>domestic itinerary. Booking as a part of a larger itn. tends to be cheaper. e.g DEL-BLR on IT was 32 USD when bought as JFK-CDG-DEL-(IT)-BLR-CDG-JFK. This is AF bundle; similarly DL,KL do domestic pairs at fraction of the cost. The advantage to this scenario is, as a Frequent Flyer for the airline you are held harmless in case of cancellation.

IT had to put a CO pax overnight in a hotel when they cancelled their X1 daily flight ex-BOM in feb'011. There is no harm in inquiring from your primary carrier what pricing & T&Cs they have for domestic sectors.

my flights were not until mid-February and the end of March. I did not want to take any chances on KF going belly up and being stuck with my tickets. I worked on an airline bankruptcy in the '80s as a legal asst. so I decided to get out while the getting was good -- everything I read about KF was that they are hemorraging money, pilots quitting. Who needs the aggravation of not knowing whether KF will still be in existence at the end of March.

Finally at the "update schedule on 12th Dec" my flight was not included. All the flights from Delhi to Bhubaneshwar has been cancelled.

Yesterday have booked a new one with Indigo more expensive that the previous one. I don't know how it works to get the money back (the ticket was refundable) as they don't answer the mails..., at the same time have started a claim with american express.

Hope I'll reach Bhubaneshwar safely.

Jorge

My Father-in-law arrived today by KF afternoon flight BLR/BOM. No cancellation, no merging of flights, stipulated time take off & arrived as per schedule!! Surprise...Lunch was good itseems and for dessert guess what the regular chocolate brownie was replaced with Ice cream !

In line with the new capitalism (in old bottle) sweeping the world, Mallaya- the king of broke times- has been bailed out for the time being, to the tune of almost 7000 crores.

http://articles.economictimes.indiat...-equity-shares

A woman from Kingfisher have called to my mobile in Spain just to answer my mail confirming that the flight has been cancelled and the money will be refund to my account (Amex). They have also confirmed and sent the receipt to my email address.

Jorge

After more than a few tweets and emails, KF DID cancel my flights AND called me in Chicago AND emailed my refund receipts (after sending two emails without the attachments. third time was the charm.)

Checked my credit card today and the flights are refunded.

Their message has changed when you call the toll-free US number; now they tell you to email them about existing flights. I checked the latest schedule just for the hell of it and my Chennai-Varanasi flight # is not on the list.

Good thing I got out while the gettin' was good!

Now I get to experience Air India, SpiceJet, and Sri Lankan Airlines....
Plus each new flight was about $60 cheaper than original KF flights....

Back to the old times again; larger airlines have returned back to IT for domestic on certain route-pair but heavily discounted towards the international carriers.

Just an update - our flight was OK.

Interesting story though. We were boarded about 45 minutes before the flight time - very unusual for Indian flights, then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for about an hour, before an announcement made that we were waiting for 2 passengers from Chennai who had been delayed.This in itself was strange as Indian flights don't normally wait for passengers.

The air conditioning was connected, fortunately, as we were still waiting 90 minutes later, before a mini coach pulled up outside, two men jumped out and rushed on to the plane, and straight into the cockpit. The two "passengers" we had been waiting for were in fact the pilot & co-pilot, and we had been sitting on the plane for 2 hours with neither in front. They had been flown in from Chennai for the flight, and had been delayed by the late arrival of their flight.

Once in the air, we made good time and arrived in Kochi only about 90 minuted delayed.

Thanks for the update, Brian, and for the interesting story!

I'm really glad to hear that those two passengers made the flight - it just wouldn't have been the same without them!