India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has deregistered two aircraft in the fleet of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd following a letter from the German lessor of the planes in which it stated that payments were not being made on time.
This is the first time since 2009 that the regulator is deregistering the plane of a national airline at the request of lessors, a move that’s considered unusual in the international lease market as per a report in Mint by Tarun Shukla.
Two Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd aircraft were removed from the aircraft registry of India in late 2009 owing to similar non-payment.
“We have deregistered the aircraft today,” a government official familiar with the matter said on Monday, following a communication from lessor KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH. “This was due to termination of the lease agreement as the airline was apparently not paying the lessors.”
Kingfisher, which has a fleet of 64 aircraft comprising Airbus A320s and short-haul ATRs, is facing a cash squeeze and has been defaulting on vendor payments and salaries.
The deregistered planes were turboprop ATRs with registration numbers VT-DKD and VT-DKE, said the official cited above.
Director general of civil aviation Bharat Bhushan has the power to deregister planes under rule 30 of the Aircraft Act, said the official.
A second government official, who also declined to be named, said the bank had recently sought that the two aircraft be not “allowed to fly” in a three-page letter marked to the aviation ministry, DGCA and the Airports Authority of India.
