Once hailed as the most sophisticated airline of the country is now crippled with a  second quarter loss of  Rs 754 crore due to idle cost, high taxes and restructuring expense. The things are even getting worse when the major moneylender to KFA , State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Choudhary said that the airline needs to infuse $ one billion in order to avoid total collapse. He added that he has not seen any urgent efforts from the KFA management in terms of raising the funds, or any concrete recovery plan. In his remarks he told reporters “ "We are slightly disappointed with the pace at which their capital raising plan is going on. We have made it very clear to the company that the company has no justification or no room for debt. They have to give equity,"

Chaudhuri further said, "We are not interested where the capital is coming from. Whether it is coming from Mallya, group companies, outside, Indian, overseas, airlines, whatever be the source, we are agnostic about the source. But we would like to see capital being infused. How much capital infusion? We do not put a gun on their head. But the more that comes in, the better it is because airline is a very capital intensive business. I think about USD 1 billion would be a good starting point."

In the past one year, some banks including SBI have classified Kingfisher as non-performing asset (NPA). In fact, SBI had also part sold its stake in the airline. Banks have in unison say that the airline needs to get an investor soon and they are not pulling the plugs right now on humanitarian grounds.

As of now KFA has failed to get an investor to fight against extinction and Chairmen and promoter Vijay Mallya is facing the intense heat from the angry employees, investors and even from DGCA as well as ministry of civil aviation.

AW-Jyotishman