Kingfisher eyeing the South-East Asian market

Mumbai: Indian full service carrier, Kingfisher, may now be eyeing the Southeast Asian market, besides the United States, which has always been on its radar.

Talking with Malaysian news service Bernama, Kingfisher chairman, Vijay Mallya, said that South-East Asia was a potential market for the airline, mainly because of the well-developed infrastructure in the region. This, he said, was a big attraction for the airline.

"Most South-East Asian countries have good infrastructure and we would like to fly to these destinations in the future," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Aviation and Tourism Investor Summit here.

Mallya struck a note of caution, however, saying that his priority was first to tap the Indian market fully, before he considered expanding the carrier's international services. In this regard, he said, that the carrier would first look at consolidating domestically, where it was operating 522 flights a day, along with Air Deccan.

Mallya has recently acquired a dominating stake of 26 per cent in Air Deccan, India's first low cost carrier.

Current domestic aviation rules dictate that only airlines with five years of continuous service can start operations abroad. Industry analysts expect that Kingfisher may well piggyback on Air Deccan's service record and go international. Air Deccan began operations in 2003, and completes five years of service next year.

Mallya is likely to announce a clutch of orders for long-range aircraft at the upcoming Paris Air Show, such as the Airbus A340 family, which would allow it to operate direct flights on the high traffic India-US route. Kingfisher expects delivery of the first A340-300 long-haul planes next February.

Mallya told Bernama, "If the Indian government gives us permission, it will open up a whole host of opportunities and we will surely look at South-East Asia very closely."