Airlines owned by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group have missed payments due on leased aircraft, the chief executive of lessor Aergo Capital has told industry publication FlightGlobal. HNA had “stopped paying – via their owned airline subsidiaries – some lessors for leased jets for the past two to three months,” Aergo CEO Fred Browne was quoted as saying. “We only have one aircraft exposed, but I know others have a lot more,” Browne told FlightGlobal. “If those lessors turn around and say ‘no more’ and pull those aircraft out, that could truly shake the market.” HNA did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. Browne did not immediately return a call to his office seeking further comment. Pressure is growing on the HNA conglomerate after a debt-fuelled $50b acquisition spree including New York properties, Californian golf courses, US electronics wholesaler Ingram Micro and stakes in Deutsche Bank and hotelier Hilton Worldwide Holdings. Its financing costs have risen as repayments come due, and ratings agency Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded its credit assessment due to its “aggressive financial policy” and tightening liquidity. ”We value our relationships with lessors and we are committed to meeting our obligations to them,” a spokesman for HNA Group said.<br/>
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The Indian government’s fraud case against tycoon Vijay Mallya is baseless and politically motivated, his defense lawyer told a London court on Tuesday as she battled to prevent his extradition to his home country. Mallya, who lives in Britain, stands accused in India of fraudulently palming off losses from his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines onto banks by taking out loans he had no intention of repaying. His defense team argue that he is being used as a scapegoat by Indian politicians of all stripes to deflect public anger at the accumulation of bad debts by state-owned banks. The 61-year-old, nicknamed “the King of Good Times” after the slogan on bottles of one of his premium beers and his hard partying lifestyle, had business interests ranging from aviation to liquor. The case against him centres on a series of loans Kingfisher obtained from Indian banks, especially state-owned lender IDBI. The banks want to recover a total of about $1.4b that the state says the defunct airline owes.<br/>
A joint team comprising personnel of the East Nusa Tenggara chapter of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and Kupang Police’s narcotics division arrested a Lion Air pilot for alleged drug use on Monday. The pilot, identified as Mahesa, was arrested while holding a party at which drugs were allegedly taken at Hotel T-More in Kupang city. “The Lion Air pilot with flight number JT 924 was caught [allegedly] using drugs in Room 205 of Hotel T-More, with evidence comprising a package of crystal methamphetamine weighing 0.3 grams, a bong and its glass pipe, two gas lighters and four plastic straws,” said BNN East Nusa Tenggara head Muhammad Sidik Tuesday. He added that the Lion Air pilot was later taken to the Kupang Police office for a urine test. He reportedly tested positive to using crystal meth. Mahesa was scheduled to operate a Lion Air flight on Tuesday but was replaced by another pilot as he had to undergo questioning at the Kupang Police office on Tuesday afternoon. <br/>