Air Deccan as an airline may have flown into sunset with Kingfisher buying it out two years ago, but the brand continues to fly the Indian skies as about 10 jets of the erstwhile carrier are yet to be repainted by the new owner.
"About 10 airplanes from the (Air) Deccan fleet are yet to be repainted and rebranded by Kingfisher," a senior Kingfisher Airlines official told PTI.
Most of the Air Deccan aircraft that await repainting are small single-aisle ATR jets. When contacted, the Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said re-painting of aircraft is typically done when the aircraft visits the maintenance, repair, overhaul workshop for scheduled maintenance checks.
"It doesn't make any sense to pull out an otherwise completely airworthy aircraft from regular commercial service, only to get it re-painted with the Kingfisher brand name," the spokesperson added.
The Vijay-Mallya led carrier had acquired Air Deccan founded by Capt G R Gopinath in 2007.
It had acquired 26 per cent for Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.5 billion) and later made an open offer for another 20 per cent taking its overall holding to 46 per cent.
Air Deccan was subsequently rebranded as 'Fly Kingfisher' after the Karnataka high court gave final approval for a merger of the two companies last year.
Yet, Capt Gopinath had continued to hold around 10 per cent stake in the new entity but gradually he had reduced stake to little over one per cent in September 2009. Kingfisher currently has a fleet of 71 aircraft comprising ATR and Airbus jets.
