The “King of good times” has done it again: Is the world ready ?

Vijay Mallya, the Indian Liquor and Airline business magnate known for his aggressive and innovative marketing is taking his airline fleet overseas. Kingfisher Airlines largely famous for its saucy airhostesses and top-notch service, plans to fly on multiple routes in US and UK as early as next year.
Mallya placed one of the biggest Aircraft orders to Airbus at Paris Air Show. The order was placed for 50 aircrafts worth $7 billion. Kingfisher’s strategy is to open long-haul routes and expand the existing domestic routes.
The deal, for 50 Airbus planes, included five A340s, which are only economical to fly on long-haul trips. Mallya already has on order five of Airbus’s jumbo A380s, which he plans to fly non-stop to the U.S. East Coast, and five additional A340s, which he plans to fly nonstop to America’s West Coast.
One of the reasons for Mallya to put in such a big investment is due to the fact that Indian are flying much mroe than what they used to earlier. The domestic market is grown by over 40% while the international passengers have grown by 25% over last year. This growth rate is expected to carry through at least a decade.
The Airline Industry has suddenly seen number of players entering the Indian market after being dormant for a very long time. Due to the competition within airlines, the air fares in some cases have fallen by more than 50%. Very recently the Jet Sahara deal has been making news for all wrong reasons. To top it all the fierce marketing campaigns by these companies have become talk of the town. Have a look at this Billboard at Juhu in Mumbai to get a glimpse of what I am talking

Vijay Mallya, now announcing his foray into International market has pushed itself ahead of the pack. It will be interesting to watch how other companies like Jet Airways and Spicejet respond to it. Jet Airways has been flying overseas for a couple of years now, but have not really made an impact.

A bit on Vijay Mallya:
His driveway holds almost all top-notch cars in the world, including Ferraris, Bentleys and Mercs. He wears expensive diamonds and is known to be one of the biggest party animal. He truly flaunts the “good times” motif in most aspects of his life. The youth in India look upon him as an Icon.

As with all his other ventures, I am eagerly waiting to see the innovative ways Vijay Mallya will adopt to promote his International Kingfisher Airlines. Exciting times ahead.