Jet fuel supply to debt laden Kingfisher Airlines resumed selectively on Thursday. Hindustan Petroleum, a leading supplier to Kingfisher Airlines, decided to resume supply after hectic negotiations with the company late on Wednesday evening.
It is learnt that flights were taking off with slight delays. This could bring relief to stranded passengers at Mumbai and Delhi airports after Hindustan Petroleum and other oil companies cut supply to the airline on Wednesday for non-payment of dues.
HPCL, which is Kingfisher's biggest aviation fuel supplier, had stopped refuelling Vijay Mallaya-run airline at around 18.00 hours yesterday.
It decided to resume supplies after hectic negotiations, a senior company official said. "There is a certain financial discipline we have been following for past two years. And when some payments got delayed without any explanation, we had no option but to stop supplies," he said.
The two companies had hectic parleys through the night. "Even as we were talking, we decided to selectively refuel Kingfisher flights. So between 9 and 10 PM yesterday, HPCL refuelled their Mumbai-Hong Kong, Mumbai-Delhi and some other flights," he said.
Kingfisher, which owes Rs 515-520 crore in fuel bills along with interest, had not been honouring its daily fuel bills, prompting the state-owned oil firm to snap supplies. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) supplies negligible quantities to Kingfisher while Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd continues to sell fuel to Kingfisher Airlines on cash-and-carry basis at a couple of airports.
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