With the trouble that Virgin USA (or is it Virgin America?) got into because of its inability to show control independent of non US citizens/bodies (Branson and Virgin Atlantic), I doubt that Mallya will be able to use his children's citizenship to get around domestic ownership rules in the US. At least in public statements, Mallya's approach has been to float a US airline in his US Citizen children's name. US DOT has clearly signalled that it will not allow that and ownership needs to be truly "controlled" by US citizens (not by Indian citizen father).

Mallya will just 'fix' things with buddies in the DGCA... getting DOT approval takes far longer than changing DGCA provisions ;)

BTW, Virgin America got the provisional go ahead last week and should fly this summer. Methinks it had to do something with VS giving up its opposition to the EU-US open skies treaty in Britain.

If he grants the money to his adult children who are US citizens without conditions that grant him effective, direct control, then the adult children can use that money for whatever use they wish, including starting up a separate US airline that flies to India.

Mallya's family probably is better off just waiting for the necessary time marker to pass and then launching flights to the US rather than implementing an asset disposition plan to make this work sooner than in due time.

US plans:

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/27king.htm

I wish he could pull off everything he is talking about, but it all sounds pretty vague. Having 9 long range airbus coming in with no where to fly this year should increase his cash burn... The 330 he may be able to drylease, but who would lease a 345 right now?:confused:

I think he should have just bought Air Sahara eliminated a competitor, gain a hub and intl operations. Some of his actions also baffle me like signing up with Air Arabia a LCC.

S2 is seriously in bad condition. 9W couldn't get out their JV deal fast enough after they discovered the inside details not visible during the initial due dilligence.

Hi there,

I plan to take a Kingfisher flight from London to Mumbai in business class soon. I have never flown Kingfisher before, but their website looks very promising.

What does the product feel like? Is it at par with other "5 star" airlines?

Any views appreciated.

Best,

CalFlyer

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ght=kingfisher

This thread should really be in the Airlines of India forum...

when it comes to comfort, kingfisher is one of the best airlines out there....

check out the thread savage25 is referring to....you will get all the info you want there....

Thank you, guys, I had missed the "Airlines of India" section.

Sounds like I should be looking forward to my Kingfisher flight!

DEL- HKG
 

how does the LHR-DEL flight compare with DEL - KHG, in first? will we still get pjs? do they serve dom?

travelling hkg-bom in first next week....can give you the pros & cons then....

Sometime in the late 80's Vijay Mallya had an airline called UB Air but soon wound up.

So I took the Kingfisher First flight from LHR to BOM, and I must say I was impressed.

Great seat, good food (not great though), excellent wines, overall a good touch and feel. Flight left gate in London 20 mins early (!) and arrived almost 1h early in Mumbai! The flight attendants were attentive, though not quite the Bollywood cast I was expecting after some of the enthusiastic comments elsewhere. But very polite indeed!

Conclusion: Will fly them again if I have the chance.