Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya should be extradited from Britain to India to face fraud charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a London court ruled on Monday. India wants to bring criminal action against Mallya, 62, whose business interests have ranged from aviation to liquor, over $1.4b in loans Kingfisher took out from Indian banks which the authorities argue he had no intention of repaying. Mallya has denied any wrongdoing and says the case against him is politically motivated. He said he would consider his next steps and whether to appeal. Judge Emma Arbuthnot, England’s chief magistrate, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court false representations had been made to Indian banks, including state-owned IDBI, regarding what the loans would be used for and she ruled there was evidence of conspiracy to defraud the lenders and of money laundering.<br/>
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Jet Airways and Flynas have entered into an extensive codeshare agreement, targeted at enhancing connectivity between India and Saudi Arabia. Under the deal, Jet Airways will place its code on Flynas’ services between the cities of Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh, as well as on the Saudi Arabia budget carrier’s services from the three cities to Medina, Gizan, Gassim, Taif and Abha. In turn, Flynas will put its code on Jet Airways’ international flights from Jeddah to Mumbai, and from Riyadh and Dammam to Mumbai and Delhi. It will also codeshare on the airline’s domestic services from Mumbai to Delhi, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow, and from Delhi to Bengaluru, Lucknow, Chennai and Kochi. Jet Airways’ executive VP of commercial Marnix Fruitema says the deal is significant since Saudi Arabia is the second largest international market to and from India, accounting for six million passengers travelling annually between the two countries for religious tourism, business and leisure. “This partnership is an important step in-line with Flynas’ expansion and development strategy,” adds Flynas’ CE Bander Al-Mohanna.<br/>
The Vietnam partner of AirAsia Group expects their new carrier to begin operations in August, joining the ranks of low-cost airlines in Southeast Asia as a growing middle class spurs many to travel by air. The domestic airline will apply for its aviation license in February and expects to gain the necessary regulatory approvals within six months, said Tran Trong Kien, chief executive officer of Hanoi-based resort and seaplane operator Thien Minh Group, AirAsia’s partner. Vietnam has been a missing piece of the puzzle for Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes’s AirAsia, Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost carrier group with affiliates in key markets including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The new airline would become the latest entrant following Bamboo Airways this year in Vietnam, a market dominated by state-owned Vietnam Airlines JSC and private budget carrier VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co. Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed support for the yet-to-be-named venture during a Dec. 6 meeting with Kien and Fernandes, according to the Thien Minh Group CEO. The airline plans to deploy five or six Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft on domestic routes between Hanoi, Da Nang and other cities as well as for regional flights, and the fleet could expand to as many as 30 within three years, Kien said last week.<br/>
Firefly has seen “significant impact” on its revenue and profit from the recent suspension of operations to Singapore due to the ongoing Malaysia-Singapore dispute. The turboprop operator had to suspend all flights to Singapore from 1 December, the same day it was due to move operations from Changi airport to Seletar airport, after failing to gain approval from Malaysia’s civil aviation regulator for operations from Seletar. Firefly CE Ignatius Ong said that Singapore is the second most important market for the carrier, after Penang, in terms of frequency and revenue. "It is putting a huge hole in Firefly's profit and loss [statement]," he said of the suspension. The carrier used to operate 10 flights a day out of Singapore – seven to Kuala Lumpur, two to Ipoh and one to Kuantan. These accounted for about three of its 12 ATR 72s in service. Ong said the airline had considered deploying the turboprops elsewhere, but decided against doing so because it wants to be able to mount flights to Singapore once regulatory approval comes through. It is instead taking advantage of the downtime to push forward maintenance work for its fleet. “From a schedule integrity point of view, we’re not doing anything for now. We’re still quite hopeful that this thing should be sorted out in the next couple of weeks,” he added.<br/>