Kingfisher Airlines has 60 billion Indian rupees ($1.25 billion) of debt on its balance sheet, and plans to raise 5 billion Indian rupees by tapping India's equity market.
Speaking after it reported a net loss of 16.09 billion rupees for the year ended 31 March, Kingfisher's chairman Vijay Mallya told India's CNBC-TV18 television station that the carrier has "multiple options" on the fund-raising and will "decide the way forward very quickly".
He added that his airline is determined to stem the losses and is not just looking at upping market share. Kingfisher retained its top position among Indian airlines in June, carrying 900,000 domestic passengers for a 24.4% market share.
"What we need to ensure now is that we sustain this through to the peak where hopefully income and earnings will improve," he said. "I am determined to stop these losses. I will do whatever it takes. I am not after market share only. Yes, we are proud to be India's largest airline but not at the cost of shareholders."
He added that the airline had cut capacity, returned over 11 aircraft, deferred aircraft deliveries, and rationalised its route network to keep costs down. He added that the carrier is able to compete with low-cost carriers as 70% of its entire route network was "a single class low fare product".
"Domestically we are more than break-even at the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) level. International operations are losing money, understandably so because there is a lot of credit re-pricing by international carriers. But, overall, we are in much better shape than we were last year" he added.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
