Moneycontrol Excl: Kingfisher may hive off low cost arm

Shaheen Mansuri
Moneycontrol.com

UB group-promoted Kingfisher Airlines is looking to hive off its low-cost arm Kingfisher Red into a separate entity, an official familiar with the development told moneycontrol.com. The move is aimed at giving a better focus to the full service operations, which has been struggling to grow its market share even as low cost rivals like Indigo and SpiceJet are steadily narrowing the gap.

Kingfisher has a market share of 19.8% and is the number two player in the domestic sky.

An e-mail query to Kingfisher on this subject did not elicit any response.

With its losses mounting, Kingfisher Airlines has been struggling to foot its fuel bills, which led to its dozen flights being grounded on a single day last month.

The airline