In another post, the Kingfisher Airlines chairman said, "Is it Kingfishers duty 2 fly on loss making routes when State Governments tax heavily? Or should v be financially prudent n fly profitably?"

Mallya said the company has approached lender-banks for a reappraisal of working capital requirements following a 50% surge in price of fuel in recent months, but denied it has sought any fresh debt restructuring

Kingfisher airlines on Friday admitted requesting banks to increase the loan limits to enable it meet rising operating costs due to increase in fuel prices and rupee devaluation.

"Kingfisher has not made any bail out request to the government. We have only asked our banks for an increase in limits due to significant increase in operating costs caused by increase in fuel prices and rupee devaluation," Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO, Kingfisher Airlines, said tonight in a statement.

On the DGCA showcause notice on flight cancellations, he said: "We did not feel the need for informing DGCA. In hindsight, we should have informed them and we apologised to them for the same."

On speculation about the closure of the airlines, he said Kingfisher does not see any risk to its future or long term viability.

Though the airline had maintained that the flight operations will normalise after November 19, the reconfiguration initiative will require up to three aircraft to be out of service over the next three months at any one time for this exercise to be completed.

"It will reduce the number of fleet configurations from 7 to 3, improving operational flexibility. This initiative will add more seats to the fleet, improving revenue production of each aircraft," he said.

TOI