Kingfisher Airlines interested in a stake in Air Deccan

Now that Jet Airways has acquired Air Sahara, it is now remaining to be seen what action Vijay Mallya takes to expand his presence in the Indian aviation market.

The chairman of the Kingfisher Airlines has now indicated that he is indeed interested in picking up a stake in the domestic no-frills carrier Air Deccan.

He said in a statement: “Am I interested? Yes. Am I imminently acquiring it? Not decided as yet.” However, he did add: “I do not have any current plans to acquire Air Deccan.”

Mallya launched his Kingfisher Airlines two years back as a full service-true value carrier. He had shown interest in Air Sahara but did not pursue a deal saying that the price was too high. Market analysts too believe that Jet is paying a lot of money for Air Sahara.

Capt. Gopinath, head of Air Deccan had these words on the statement made by Mallya: “We are here for a long haul. We are not for sale… We are three times bigger (than Kingfisher) in routes and operations.”

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