Kingfisher may cut jobs: Mallya

Kingfisher Airlines may cut jobs, UB group chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya said.

"There are several employees on our rolls whose presence in the organisation will be reviewed," the Chairman of UB Group, of which Kingfisher is a part, told the annual general meeting of Kingfisher.

"We will look at some structural changes in combination of jobs, (and) job profiles as well but without any mass, large-scale layoffs. We are looking to rationalise our human resources cost base", he said.

But Mallya also said that Kingfisher was "not in the business of hiring and firing and generating unemployment", he said.

Kingfisher planned to apply for more international flight routes to beat possible competition from Spice Jet and Indigo.

"We are looking at obviously applying for more routes because now Spice Jet is eligible to fly overseas, Indigo will be eligible to fly overseas next year. Before they come in and grab additional bilateral rights, we want to make sure Kingfisher has already secured these rights", Mallya said.

He said that with civil aviation staging a strong recovery, Kingfisher that had earlier deferred new aircraft purchases because of economic slowdown and general over-capacity in the sector, has decided to reactivate delivery stream from Airbus from 2012.

Besides, Mallya said that Kingfisher had cut non-fuel costs to the extent of Rs 530 crore (Rs 5.3 billion) in 2009-10, compared to the previous fiscal.