Kingfisher Airlines to fly its own brand overseas

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines will commence overseas operations under its own brand, even though it will fly on Deccan Aviation's permit. Come 26 August, Deccan Aviation completes five years of domestic operations and becomes eligible to fly overseas. As a merged entity, the Kingfisher brand will now take to the skies on overseas flights. 

The Karnataka High Court cleared the Kingfisher Airlines-Deccan Aviation merger last month. The legal clearance has allowed Kingfisher to speed up the integration process with Deccan and the fleet, livery and manpower are already being blended with Kingfisher's format.

The Bangalore-based Kingfisher is now trying to meet statutory requirements of different agencies in order to emerge as a single entity. The merger, and the clearance to fly abroad, also awaits clearance from the country's aviation regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Meanwhile, airline officials said that with a court clearance already in place, the company will now file for changes in the company's ownership with the Registrar of Companies. The decision to disband the Deccan brand will also be taken at the board meeting of the airline over the next few weeks.

They also clarified that instead of August, international services may now kick off sometime in September instead. According to airline officials, once the ministry of civil aviation grants the airline designated status it will take them about four weeks to secure approval from British and US authorities. Thereafter, it will take another six weeks to book pre-sales.

In all, the airlines is looking at a time- frame of two-and-a-half months from now for commencement of international services. The airline has applied for permission to fly on more than 50 different routes and will have both direct and indirect connectivity to the US, Europe and different Asian regions.