History of a May day

AirAsia India secured its operating permit on May 7. There is a bit of aviation history surrounding the date and, ironically, it concerns Kingfisher Airlines, which has been grounded for the past two years. May 7 is the birthday of Siddharth Mallya, son of liquor baron and Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya. Kingfisher Airlines' first flight carrying Mallya, his close friends, the airline management and travel agents took off on the same day (May 7) in 2005. The original plan was to start commercial services from that day but for some reason it was postponed to May 9, when the airline's first commercial flight took off between Mumbai and Bangalore.