Kingfisher To Launch Second LHR Flight

Kingfisher To Launch Second LHR

(NSI News Source Info) September 3, 2008: Kingfisher Airlines, which is launching its lone international flight from Bangalore to London Heathrow on Sept. 3, will launch its second flight to London from Mumbai in November. Sources say the Heathrow slot was given to it by KLM. Kingfisher is also said to have signed an agreement for maintenance with KLM, leading many to speculate that the carrier may be a candidate for membership in the SkyTeam Airline Alliance, of which Air France-KLM are members. The DAILY has learned it will soon be launching a flight from Bangalore to Singapore mid-September and to Hong Kong from Mumbai by Oct. 15 using an Airbus A330-200. The airline declined comment. The changing environment has led the carrier to rethink its fleet plans. It plans to convert five of its 10 Airbus A340-500 orders to A330-200s, while negotiations are said to be on to sell two of the remaining five A340s on order, leaving three. Three A330-200s have already been delivered, and the fourth is expected to arrive soon. According to sources, Kingfisher continues to evaluate its U.S route and may go the Jet Airways way of using a hub. Jet uses Brussels as its European hub. Kingfisher will find an able adversary on its route to Singapore in Singapore Airlines, which is planning to increase its flights from Delhi to 14 a week in the near future and looking to increase frequencies to Bangalore by the end of the year. SIA plans to operate double daily flights to Chennai and Bangalore, in addition to its current two daily frequencies to Mumbai.