New Delhi: The co-founder of India's most successful airline IndiGo has dismissed criticism of his low-cost carrier's profits as "silly" and cautioned the government against condoning inefficiencies in the industry. "Saying that all of our money comes from sale and leaseback is silly," Rahul Bhatia, 49, told ET in a rare interview.
Vijay Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines is struggling under a mountain of debt, said last week that every airline in India was in trouble and the ones making money were doing so by selling and leasing back aircraft and not from operations. Although he did not refer to IndiGo by name, it is the only airline making a profit.
But Bhatia said attributing all of IndiGo's profits to accounting was "a wee bit for the birds". "If sale and leaseback is the only formula to profitability, I don't think we have the IP rights on this and everybody can do it and I think everybody does it."
"I feel strongly about it that just because certain constituents of the industry may have issues with their business, the government is prepared to go as far as changing policy. It almost sounds like we are sponsoring premium on inefficiency and I principally struggle with that."
23/11/11 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times
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