Kingfisher to float on London Stock Exchange, possibly serve LHR and MAN

The Kingfisher Charirman has said that UK routes are likely and regards Mumbai-LHR and Delhi-MAN as potential routes

Kingfisher Airlines is planning to list on a UK stock exchange, its chairman Vijay Mallya said. In an interview with the Times of London late last week, he said there will be a domestic issue of Kingfisher Airlines in India in 2006, followed by a secondary issue overseas next year.

Mallya, who owns the UB group promoting Kingfisher Airlines is gung-ho on overseas flight potential. He told Times that Kingfisher is planning to bring the airline to UK soon.

However, it is not clear how Kingfisher Airlines can fly abroad at this point, since current norms do not allow Indian airlines to fly abroad unless they have a minimum of five years experience in domestic flights. Though there has been speculation that the government may soon relax this rule, there has been no official communication on this.

Mallya said: “There is a huge amount of scope to fly between the UK and India, whether it be Bombay to Heathrow or Delhi to Manchester. We will do a primary listing of the airline in Bombay this year and a secondary one, probably in London, next year.”

According to Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority, about 1.5 million people are likely to fly from Britain to India in the year to October. This compares with 847,190 last year and is almost three times the 641,250 recorded in 2000.