For some time now, the financial strains of running his Indian airline have
been tenuous at best, crescendoing over the Korean Grand Prix weekend when Grizzled ‘Journo Joe Saward broke the news regarding an arrest warrant having been issued for Vijay Mallya over failure of payment to the Indian GMR Hyderabad International Airport - when said cheques bounced! As this warrant has subsequently been rescinded upon payment of this debt “Just-in-Time” to enable Messer Vijay to attend his home Grand Prix if so desired...
And I realize it’s a very small sample group, but; I find it funny that the two Indians I’ve asked about Mr. Vijay Mallya have both drawn a blank. And when I say Kingfisher Airlines is in big trouble one of them just laughed at me and said No Trouble...
Yet that is indeed the case for Mallya’s once vaunted airline business, as the Indian authorities have just suspended Kingfisher’s licenses after the troubled airline was unable to resolve its workers issues over lack of wage payments for seven months and have been on strike while awaiting back-payment; while Mallya had temporarily grounded the airlines operation through October 20th - which obviously has now come & passed.
And I wouldn’t normally be paying any attention to this foreign airline except for the fact that its owner apparently desires to cast the same shadow as some dude formerly known here at No Fenders as “Flavour Flav,” and later “HMS Monogram,” aka Flavio Briatore... Just so happens to own the Sahara Force India F1 Team along with another not-so scrupulous character named Roy Sahara.
Thus the worry I have is for this great ‘lil midpack Formula 1 team’s future, most notably its drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta - not to mention the entire teams staff...
As one must wonder what will happen when Mallya is forced to sell off his prized United Spirits company which reportedly large swaths of its shares have been used as collateral to keep the sinking Kingfisher Airlines business afloat, no foreign investors seem to be interested in his disheveled airline and rival spirit company Diageo is lurking at the door to take over United Spirits...