Reference Auto

The king of good times Vijay Mallya has fallen into bad times with the grounding of Kingfisher Airlines and will he fall like a pack of cards now? It seems likely.

Almost 40 per cent of Kingfisher employees left since March and the airline has held up salaries of its staff from the beginning of this financial year.

When asked whether Kingfisher will ever fly again, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, in an interview to a television channel, said, “Probably not.”

What this implies is that Mallya could declare a shutdown of the airline soon, putting into jeopardy the lives of thousands of his staff who have been left in the lurch for the last eight months.

Mallya is slated to attend the Indian Grand Prix in Greater Noida this week even as his employees wait to meet him to resolve salary issues.

The airline owes debt to the tune of about Rs 7,000 crore, and unless it repays the amount, the licence to fly may not be renewed (the licence was revoked a few days back by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA).

Kingfisher had started operations in 2005 and soon turned out to be the favourite airline of its guests (that is the name the airline had given to its passengers).

It pampered its passengers and became a status symbol. But slowly, the airline’s fortunes began heading south until it became grounded.

There is buzz that with the cancellation of  Mallya’s licence, permission to fly his private jet may also be scrapped.

So, Mallya and his reputation have been grounded, literally. For how long can he carry on his current lifestyle?

Mallya may plan to shoot for his high profile Kingfisher calendar with celebrity photographer Atul Kasbekar next year.

However, shooting for the calendar may evince media glare and many may frown at this, arguing that how can Mallya throw away money for his calendar when he can’t even pay his staff?

Mallya’s IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore or RCB can also face an uncertain future like Deccan Chargers, which ceases to exist today as its promoter Deccan Chronicle could not bail it out. If RCB faces the axe, the IPL league could plunge into uncertainty.

Mallya is also the co-owner of the Force India Grand Prix team and his men would obviously not be in high spirits (high morale) during the Noida Grand Prix.

If his team’s performance is poor, it may have a disastrous effect on the Force India brand name and Mallya may have to quit another arena.

Mallya is the owner of United Spirits, which achieved the feat of becoming the largest spirits company in the world in terms of volume once.

But his spirits company may also be in low spirits and see a ripple effect of his other businesses.

Therefore, unless Vijay Mallya goes all out to revive Kingfisher Airlines, he may not only have to stop the pocket money of son Siddharth but may see himself fall like a pack of cards.