Parent of Kingfisher Airlines buys controlling stake in Air Deccan
 

United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd., which runs Kingfisher Airlines, said on Thursday it will buy 26 percent of Deccan Aviation Ltd. signaling further consolidation in the fast expanding but loss-ridden Indian aviation market. Link

Wow, that's one fast track step towards gaining license to fly international destinations.

Oh, the 4..5 years of domestic ops before being allowed to fly international thing?

That too, except that Mallya has a "me too" thing about full service carriers needing a cheapie subsidiary (United / Ted, Delta / Song, 9W / S2 and now IT / DN)

I wonder what happened to his plan to work around the required number of years of domestic operation by starting up a US-based Kingfisher airlines to take advantage of the liberalized air market agreement between the US and India. Probably hit the US government "foreign control"/ownership snag when it came to starting that up.

I guess he already has a company registered in the US with a name of Kingfisher International Airlines. All of Mallya's 3 kids are US citizens. So, I don't think he would have significant issues/problems with US government's foreign control/ownership rules.

As in the case of Virgin America, US DOT has been very strict about looking at effective control. I don't think Mallya can get around US rules by using his US citizen kids. It is his usual bluster.