Kingfisher defers A340 deliveries to July

Company was to add one aircraft a month beginning April.

Kingfisher Airlines has deferred deliveries of wide-body A340-500s aircraft, slated for April, as it has not still been able to finalise its route network for international operations.

The airline will now take the deliveries in July and have five such aircraft by August. Kingfisher was to add one A340 a month beginning April.

"We have deferred the deliveries as the planning for our international routes is still on," said Hitesh Patel, executive vice-president, Kingfisher Airlines.

However, Kingfisher will get the deliveries of all its 10 wide-body aircraft, including A330s (to be deployed on the London-Mumbai-Delhi route), by September.

The move may also be the result of Kingfisher not being able to find an airline for wet leasing (an agreement whereby one airline provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance to another and is paid in terms of the number of operating hours) of these aircraft till such time it goes international. Kingfisher was earlier considering wet leasing to Air-India.

Air-India was looking for wide-body aircraft due to a delay in delivery schedules of Boeing's Dreamliner 787.

"One aircraft was scheduled to be delivered to Kingfisher on a six-month wet lease. But there is no point taking an aircraft for six months only. There was another aircraft available for a year, but the lease agreement did not come through," said an Air-India spokesperson.

Gulf carrier Etihad Airways was also reportedly contemplating wet lease of a Kingfisher aircraft.

The airline plans to fly the A340-500s non-stop on the long-haul New York and San Francisco routes.

Kingfisher is hoping to get the nod to fly abroad after Simplify Deccan, the low-cost carrier acquired by it recently, was given a formal go-ahead by the civil aviation ministry after completing the mandatory five years of domestic operations before getting permission to fly abroad.