What happened to the Airbus A330 fleet of Indian carrier Kingfisher airlines?

It has been more than a decade since India’s full-service carrier Kingfisher suspended it’s operations. The airline once flew a diverse fleet consisting of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft. Let’s examine what happened to the airline’s A330 fleet.

A brief history of Kingfisher airlines

In the early 2000s, India was rapidly growing. Economic activity was booming in the country. India’s aviation market was no exception to this. It was at this time at the country’s liquor baron Vijay Mallya decided to establish an airline. His plans were ambitious. He wanted Kingfisher to be India’s most premium airline. And so, Kingfisher airlines commenced scheduled operations on 9th of May 2005 out of its Mumbai base. The airline acquired Bengaluru-based low-cost carrier Air Deccan in 2007, renaming it Kingfisher Red. Its international operations commenced on 3rd September 2008 when the first Kingfisher flight to London took off from Bengaluru. Unfortunately, over time, the airline became plagued with losses. Kingfisher Red was shut down in 2011. By 2012, half of Kingfisher’s fleet was grounded and it’s market place had slipped to last place from the second place it held but a year before. Kingfisher Airlines suspended its operations on 20 October 2012 after its licence was suspended by the DGCA after it failed to address the Indian regulator’s concerns about its operations.

The Airbus A330–200s

The Airbus A330–200s formed the backbone of Kingfisher’s long-haul operations, with the airline flying these Airbus wide-body jets to key overseas destinations like London and Hong Kong. The airline operated five of these Airbus wide-bodies over the course of its operations. The first of these jets, VT-VJK, joined Kingfisher’s fleet new in 12th of June, 2008. VT-VJK was followed by the delivery of VT-VJL later that month. August of that year saw three more A330–200s joining Kingfisher’s fleet.

What has happened to these jets since?

Unfortunately, only one of Kingfisher’s A330–200s graces the skies today. This being VT-VJO, which left Kingfisher’s fleet in November of 2011. After it’s days with Kingfisher, VT-VJO joined the fleet of Turkish national flag carrier Turkish airlines, where it flew until October of 2019. Bulgarian carrier Gullivair leased the jet in April of 2021, and has been actively flying it ever since.

The other four of Kingfisher’s A330–200s did stay on with Kingfisher a bit further, with three of these leaving the fleet in March of 2012 and the last one exiting the fleet in the following month. One of these, VT-VJN, was scrapped in September 2021 at Tarbes, France, having served with Nigerian carrier Arik Air for four years from October 2013 to December 2016. The other three A330–200s are currently listed as stored. VT-VJL served alongside VT-VJN in Arik Air’s fleet from 2013 to 2017, and is currently stored at Lourdes, France. An interesting point to note is that US cargo carrier National Airlines was set to takeover both VT-VJN and VT-VJL, but decided against it for reasons unknown. VT-VJK, meanwhile, flew with Turkish Airlines from May 2015 for four years until September 2019 when it was withdrawn from the fleet of the airline. The airframe was picked up by Gullivair in February 2021 but has been stored in Sofia, Bulgaria since April 2022. VT-VJP, the last of Kingfisher’s A330s, flew for Vietnam Airlines from July 2014 to May 2017. Russian carrier I-Fly leased it in December 2017, but retired it in February 2022. The Airbus is currently parked in Teruel, Spain.

Far from the only wide-body aircraft Kingfisher ordered

While the A330–200s were the only wide-body aircraft delivered to Kingfisher, Kingfisher also had on order five A340–500s, five A380s and five A350s. The five A340s, which would have made Kingfisher the only Indian carrier to operate the rare type, eventually ended up with other airlines like Azerbaijan Airlines and Springjet, one of them even going to the Tunisian government. The A380s, like the A340–500s, would have made Kingfisher the only Indian carrier to fly the superjumbo. The A350s, meanwhile, were of the smaller A350–800 kind, and this type never reached production.