I am taking things personally: Vijay Mallya

Bangalore, Feb 20: Little did Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya foresee when he bought the control of Air Deccan that the low cost brand run by "Kingfisher" would also meet the same fate bringing down all his dreams crashing back to earth, eventually pushing him into a debt trap.

With the airlines already undergoing a huge financial crunch, Kingfisher's official website - Fly Kingfisher, on the bottom right hand corner, shows Vijay Mallya holding a dummy Kingfisher model in his hand, and a speech bubble reading, "I am taking things personally." One can infer that Mallya is indeed taking things seriously and how? By leaving passengers in a lurch by not letting go off his money but on the other hand cancelling scheduled flights without informing passengers in advance, a matter that is being looked down upon as a serious violation of moral code by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

And how did the airline land itself in the "vicious circle" of debacle? According to a report in the Financial Express, the situation became grave after Mallya purchased loss making, low cost Air Deccan followed by inadequate independent management staff that led to the disastrous downfall of the airlines.

"Purchasing a loss-making, low-cost carrier to grab market share and urgency to fly international routes in the early days was the first downfall," says an investment banker with a foreign bank as quoted by the Financial Express.

"A combination of full-service and low-cost carriers under one management is lethal, unless both fight against each other for routes, parking slots and share."

This also brings to mind on what would happen to the tie up between the airlines and American Express' - American Express Kingfisher First Credit Card, an easy way to earn tickets for every penny spent, as it says. With an effort to counter its severe cash crunch, would Kingfisher be really willing to shell out free tickets to customers anymore?

Vijay Mallya, the man who once sought to reach the skies and yearned to hold the numero uno position in the industry, will now have to pull up his socks and get his act together to save his world from tumbling down.

OneIndia News