only the paranoid survive survive the life and death battles of global businesses the Fatal decisions the risks taken the mistakes made inside the boardroom we will make an absolute huge amount of money if we're right the highest of stakes it was a real threat for everyone driven by Innovation all I had was something that I knew as disruptive it was viewed to be impossible blinded by fear Let's ignore it cuz we don't really know what to do with it desperate times and Desperate Measures that was the day that I had to go faithful consequences so my only question would have been why and the lessons learned the problem was they were wrong and it costs everything [Music] aviation in all its forms it's in thring for kids big and small we're seduced by it a ticket to A Whole New World what's not to love about it we say about the aircraft who flies airlane a pilot pilot right and where the pilot sit in a cockpit at the controls imagination can [Music] s from Howard Hughes to Richard Branson history is littered with Larger than Life characters with plenty of cash who are drawn to Aviation usually you find that these billionaires these entrepreneurs have very little knowledge and experience of what it is to work in the aviation industry and so what they normally do is start up the airline they'll probably invest quite a lot of their own money into it deep pocket help but it's not enough from Orville and Wilbur Wright's first flights Aviation has sucked in investors and money and spat them out running an airline is an intricate and hugely complex business it's brought down many before it takes vast resources and meticulous planning as well as quick wits to make a profit and nowhere more so than India Aviation is a very difficult business frankly I feel people promoters get into the business especially in India uh without understanding what they're getting into uh frankly um it requires a tremendous appetite uh to lose money and India has the highest appetite to lose money but one man who is undeterred and unfazed by all this is VJ Malia billionaire socialite politician and sports Mogul he lives a life of Glamour and opulence his parties are legendary one of India's most successful and charismatic businessmen he was the man with the mest touch no one has the kind of personality Malia has the way he talks the way he actually mingles with people uh all that adds up to a Persona where you you actually feel that he's bit of a demigod and in 2003 he did what only a billionaire businessman can do he set up his own Airline and he named it king fisher the name comes from the bestselling beer at the heart of his business Empire Kingfisher is an iconic beer brand around the world its Market leading dominance in India is Undisputed one out of every two beers sold there is a king fisher beer and he thought he could bring his Shore business touch to Aviation Dr Malia he ran a very very successful liquor company prior to King Fisher but I think the key was that they understood consumers very well and that's what led to them to believe that is ultimately a consumer business um you know I I I I believe in Brands I believe in building Brands I understand consumer so from that perspective uh it was a logical some of them thought it was a logical step to go to the Na by May 2005 Dr Malia as he likes to be known was ready announcing the launch of the airline every everything was set for a smooth takeoff with India's economy booming Malia was betting it would be the perfect Launchpad for the airline targeting wealthy Indians who wanted to travel around the country in luxurious Style and what vjn king fisher decided to do is go in um with a very premium uh proposition so they were uh set up as a full service Airline and they provided a very good customer proposition whether you were at the front of the aircraft or you were positioned at the back of the aircraft and that is a very similar model to for example Virgin Atlantic in the UK um this idea of we're a full service Airline but we're not just any other full service Airline we're a very premium full service Airline for people working in India's Aviation sector the prospect of VJ Malia starting an airline was thrilling news it was really exciting and when we heard the name of the uh Airline as well as the uh Chairman's name there actually the excitement started and uh there were a lot of uh staff who came from different different airlines I was appointed as an inlight manager and I was heading the flight I was in charge of the flight where we used to fly all domestic flying adding to the sense of excitement was Malia's undoubted star appeal from which the airline would benefit his public person Persona was flamboyant in the initial stages of his U during the launch of the airline it really worked well for him it suited the kind of a product that he was the kind of brand that he was he was trying to build befitting a premium Airline the service on board those flights was spectacular welcome aboard Kingfisher Airlines from the day we've started flying I've tried to create the finest experience for you and bring back the element of style in travel it was like nothing the Indian airline markets had seen before and you were never just a mere passenger with Kingfisher each member of your cabin crew has been handpicked by me and I have instructed them to treat you as a guest in my own home and this wasn't idle talk it was the real deal take it from one of the captains the own boat War very you would get one toone personalized service to the for the passengers they were touched they would come back once a person with Travel King Fisher would never go anywhere there was little doubt among Malia's followers that he would bring his midest touch to bear on his new project he had the track record BJ Malia is the son of a wealthy Indian Brewer Vel Malia who started India's United breweries group VJ was forced by circumstances to take over suddenly giri prash has followed Dr B's career and indeed has written the book on him vij Mal in his 20s his father passed away after a massive heart attack so he had to take over this huge Empire and uh a very fragmented Empire and he was very young inexperienced but at the same time he inherited his father's intelligence in terms of uh the way he used to do business he ran the company like a uh extremely well professionally managed company but being a so-called liquor Baron would not be enough for VJ Malia he expanded his United breweries group buying a wide range of businesses from Spirits to Pharmaceuticals to fertilizers all of them put together and end up becoming a huge business with with turnover running into a few billion dollars and since then he's added even more exotic interests such as his Formula 1 and cricket teams the reason that he Associated himself with Formula 1 the reason he Associated himself with Cricket or with uh uh football was the the kind of image that he wanted to create himself and at the same time also bring a lot of professionalism into those kind of activities as well but back in in 2005 VJ Malia had a different ambition to apply his professionalism too it would be a daunting task shaking up the entire Indian Aviation Market ruled for many years by the likes of Air India but by then open to newer and private operators in an increasingly crowded Market Kingfisher would need to stand out because if you look at what kingfish's competition was Air India the state-owned national airline was it its competition and so was Jet Airways and alongside that you had the lowcost carriers Indigo Airlines and spice jet the likes of those coming along and so king fisher had to provide these premium products to ensure that it was differentiating itself from the market but luxury alone wouldn't suffice success or failure for Kingfisher would come down to one thing skillful management so you need somebody that really understands the logistics of running an airline understands how to get as much money out of each passenger as possible and at the same time keep the costs as low as possible and I think if you can do that then um you're in a very good position and it's often that these billionaires with a lot of wealth don't have that experience um but you with a with a with a very good team of management leadership you can you can make an airline work and this billionaire was doing it solo Kingfisher was ruled by VJ Malia himself indeed it reportedly had no chief executive in its early years without a strong management team everything would hinge on a simple equation the great unknown would India's Rising economy provide enough well-healed passengers willing to pay for premium tickets then you build a business plan no matter how much of structured business case you make uh there is you know the cost side of it but you don't understand the challenges and revenue side of it the cost part of it is very easy to build uh but there's no devil on the cite the devil is on the revenue that's the greatest [Music] unknown it would be a step into the unknown for Kingfisher but as the airline took to the skies tearing up the rule book for Indian Aviation there was some advice from a fellow entrepreneur which perhaps Dr Melia should have heeded it would prove insightful Branson uh one of his famous quotes if you ever want to become a millionaire start with a billion pounds and start an airline and very soon you will become a millionaire and if you buys buys that Airline he will be able to get into International operations and that was his big [Music] dream launching in 2005 by billionaire VJ Malia king fisher Airlines was Blazing a trail in India ladies and gentlemen as your safety is our utmost concern we will now brief you on the safety features on board this king fisher Airlines airb aircraft its service was world class winning it many devoted fans thank you for flying with us today sit back relax and enjoy the Kingfisher experience as India's economy grew rapidly so did Kingfisher catering for business people and the well-off its passengers increased and increased customers like these Deli lawyers were thrilled absolutely loved it I think it was the best airline of its time the hospitality was fantastic the service was fantastic so we were frequent flyers and we uh had the king fisher Gold Card which I still keep in my wallet so it was fantastic flying with king fisher always they uh paid a lot of importance to um uh luxury and style and comfort and of course it didn't take long for the awards to come rolling in we got the best luxury airline in India best customer Serv service award best technical Awards skyrex five stars I can run out of the sa fingers on the or the numbers that how many awards we won at that time real luxerious yeah like we were the only Airline if we talk about uh during those time there were around six or seven Airlines around the world who got a five star rating from a rating agency called skyrex skyrex is the biggest rating agency in the aviation business so the five star status uh was given to King Vish line within the first three years of operation so that's phenomenon overseeing every aspect was VJ Malia himself his influence writt large across the airline the king fisher was vial and vial was king fisher so the first king first four five years the everything which we did in king fisher was the vgms Persona glorified everything has to be big has to be the biggest has to be the best in the world no detail was too big or too small for Dr Malia I can recall one of the nights when Delhi was fog bound I am personally seen Dr MAA sitting there more than 48 hours and coordinating the flights personally we used to have a dedicated Department in my previous company big department who used to do these kinds of Co a jobs but here I saw my chairman myself doing it it was like his baby under his leadership staff were having the time of their lives the atmosphere was pretty pretty electric exciting all the time the new people uh new things coming up new ideas uh meeting with chairman most of the time uh the best time of my life I would have said uh of my professional life that were first 2 three years of king fisher I think nothing can match even that today Dr Malia took great care of them like the Patrician figure of what staff called the king fisher family if you talk about perks we used to get um uh a queen treatment when we used to go for our nigh halls in different different five star hotels so wherever we used to go we used to get the best treatment especially after learning the name yes the king fisher king fisher crew is coming king fisher staff is coming although yet to turn a profit prospects were looking good passenger numbers were growing rapidly and the airline expanded fast across India under VJ Malia's leadership the airline was holding true to its slogan fly the good times Well VJ uh made himself the CEO to start off with which is fine okay but uh the aviation industry has a history of having ups and downs uh when it's going up when the market demand is increasing and you're able to get very high load factors on your aircraft it's great you can really ride on the wave as it were boyed by the rising tide of India's economy VJ Malia's success seemed almost predictable but as history had shown before Aviation is a cruel mistress and with Malia at the helm would the airline be ready to weather any turbulence ahead [Music] but of course while Kingfisher boomed for the vast majority of Indians traveling in such style was a distant dream if you are flying abroad then you need a passport and valid visa for many even today will never have seen inside an airplane which is where this man spotted his own business opportunity first thing they ask whether it is real or not then we tell this is a real aircraft uh well I started this project for the poor people I belong to very small village in harana it is a Agriculture state of India so that was the idea was to show the airra to the poor people in India because in India hardly you know 2% people they they fly the they could fly in the aircraft to cater for the millions of Indians who could never afford to fly let alone in the luxury of a king fisher jet BC gupter managed to Wrangle an old Airbus and turn it into a visitor's attraction they're very happy by seeing this competive area actually they want to see how aircraft is flown actually they want to know each and everything you know like control column throt lever autopilot they ask a lot of questions even small kids they ask very good questions for these youngsters it's been a great day and a lot of fun and even if king fisher Style flying could still only be a dream for these kids and their families there was one Airline pursuing this exact Market it was called air Deen and its ambition was to get as many Indians on board and in the air as possible and this man was one of the original air Dean Pilots punch line was uh a billion people to fly and a Deon is going to take out time for every Indian to fly in the skies [Music] for millions of Indians flying is no longer a dream air taken and he managed to send a lot of people on board because he gave a lot of free tickets initially to popularize his company and also F to fill up the empty seats so they were tickets for 0 Rupees to 5 Rupees to 100 rupees quite a few so it was quite a bumper crop for people who've not flown earlier air Deon was a big hit getting many more people into the skies but its Ultra cheap tickets were ruining the market for its competitors what it was doing was that it was hurting the airline industry you know full service carriers like Jet Airways Air India or Indian Airlines they were not able to offer those kind of uh prices and it it became a huge issue for the the airline industry and at one point of time um Dr VI Malia uh said that if we don't stop airon from operating we'll all sink and under India's Airline rules there was something else which the older air Dean had which Dr Malia desperately craved an international license Dr Malia realized that this is a huge opportunity he could buy this air Deon which had already was already a 5-year-old Airline and if he buys buys that Airline he will be able to get into International operations and that was his big dream you know and in 2007 Malia did indeed buy air Deen in what seemed a deaf move Dr Malia took out a Troublesome rival and gained access to his cherished International Roots he wasted no time ordering new planes his decision to acquire decken was largely the that uh was was to overcome a regulatory barrier because he wanted to fly International he wanted to fly Long Haul from he had the fleet committed both the 330s and in fact 340s and he was a India's first customer for 380s even because he wanted to build a global [Music] airline in September 2008 the first daily flights between Bangalore and London took off hi nice to meet you how you doing nice to see you soon more routes were opened up bigger aircraft were ordered king fisher would be taking on the biggest Airlines across the world so his international plans was to fly to us non-stop he was planning to do I think Bangalore San Francisco he was planning to do Delhi New York so North America some parts of Europe were critical part of his business case and of course these were going to be luxury Havens in the skies he customized the 330s in fact there was like virgin it had a and a stand up bar um and and and he customized the product because he wanted to obviously cater to a different market and it it it basically linked very well with his domestic perception that he built was that is a powerful customer oriented Airline premium Airline so his International was an extension of that but while Malia was busy expanding his International routs Kingfisher and its Home Market was about to have a serious identity crisis at that point of time King Kisha was supposed to be this Ultra Premium Airline so there was it was chalk and cheese kind of a comparison merging its super lowcost airline with its premium Airline Kingfisher committed a cardinal sin it lost its identity you had a single Group which was King Fisher and air Deen now they rebranded that as king fisher and king fisher red but as a single Airline they had many more aircraft now in the fleet and the the demand uh for air travel the that growth in air travel that they were expecting in India just didn't materialized instead of cutting rots he ran the two Airlines together it led to a big problem he was cannibalizing his own business with predictable consequences and soon another massive crisis would emerge threatening the very viability of king fisher it would be the end of flying the good times kingish was never profitable so that from in the history uh right from 20045 up to 20101 they were not [Music] profitable as VJ Malia was battling to integrate his premium Airline and his lowcost acquisition there was further trouble ahead despite kingfisher's passenger numbers Sur ing to 12 million by 2011 its Revenue wasn't stacking up so um king fisher was never profitable so that from in the history um right from 20045 up to 20101 they were not profitable so that's number one the cost structure uh was not supported by Fair inputs so the costs of operating king fisher Pro services in the country uh was was very high and the fair inputs didn't compensate the costs there was always always a wild Gulf between their costs and revenues and a deham the Budget Airline it bought in 2007 to gain access to International routs was in the Red 2 all told it was a grim picture our top story first all good things must come to an end that's the lesson the king of Good Times Vijay Malia and his company king fisher airlines are learning the hard way a mountain load of debt and insufficient revenues have brought the carrier down on its knees a Deon was losing money it had already made a loss of 1,000 CR Kingfish Airlines was losing money so two negatives don't make a positive the airlines are having a really tough time though making any money out of this expansion the losses were growing spiraling out of control cash was burning it was making something like about $77,000 us loss per day as a king fisher Airline and then when it acquired air Dean that $77,000 loss per day went up tfold to about half a million US dollar per day and and that was the the real big impact now grappling with turning around a loss making Airline VJ Malia came face to face with the harsh realities of aviation in India first of all I would think the Regulatory and policy issues are are a big issue in fact the biggest barrier towards achieving a profitable Airline business in India the highest cost structure in the world is is in India the fuel cost is 60 70% higher airport charges are higher Taxation and maintenance is higher and then the unexpected happened the 2008 financial crisis ripped across the world smashing the aviation sector hard for an airline already running massive losses the impact was devastating and with it came high high oil prices about 30 to 35% of the operating cost for all Airlines essentially is in the fuel and the fuel is governed by external forces that the airline has very little control over and if you get a a sudden Spike or a gradual rise even for example in the cost of crude oil then that can hit your operating costs very very high and it can almost erode in many cases the the revenue that you're generating and that's what we saw with king fisher not only were King Fisher's costs Rising alarmingly its passenger numbers were dropping too and the airlines were really suffering because first of all passengers had less disposable income and passengers who did have that disposable income were essentially preparing themselves for a rainy day you know they were saying if we're going to be in it for the long haul let's save our money and if we don't need to fly we won't fly the assumptions made by King Fisher about its customers proved brittle but in actual reality indas are very value conscious uh customers on perception you know that they buy these luxurious Brands and and have these Jets and stain festar Deluxe that a logical conclusion is that uh I would have this would be the customer base for my Airline but the problem is that there are not enough customers who would subsequently want to pay the kind of fairs that are required uh people have misread the market the shooted prowess VJ Malia had brought to his other businesses seemed to fall short his faith in his ability to connect with consumers began to be exposed you cannot run an aine industry like the way you run a liquor industry a liquor industry is high margin high volume high margin in the airline industry it's exactly the opposite and almost everything is dynamic whereas in the liquor industry if you set a price you you can manufacture it's not a perishable commodity you can keep it for days together in fact if you if you have VIs sky and it it gets weathered it gets matured the price will only go up whereas you lose a seed it's gone it's perishable it was a perfect storm Kingfisher desperately needed to cut costs and to get more cash BJ Malia turned to the banks which had funded him but now the Taps had been turned off the noise is tightening around vij Malia and king fisher Airlines will the recovery proess aines kly Banks said had almost given up and said that we're not going to fund you anymore and uh he couldn't raise Capital you were burning millions of dollars every year so you needed cash to support it so he couldn't go to get a foreign Airline he couldn't go to bank he couldn't raise Capital with banks reluctant to pour more cash into loss making Airlines VJ Malia had to turn elsewhere to keep his show on the road he started using the funds the the profits of his other group companies which are extremely profitable entities United sprits United breweries uh mango chemicals and fertilizers he started using those money that money as well if you couldn't get it from the lenders you would take money from them and then at some point of time the money had to drive okay because he started defaulting on payments by now Kingfisher was heading into a terminal Decline and with VJ maler at the controls he seemed paralyzed unable to take the DraStic action needed to turn things around to be honestly that is surprised me till date as to why there was not an sense of urgency in making those Corrections you could have cut your Fleet to a reasonable size you would have restructured could cut your operations retrained some of the staff done something so that your cost and revenue sort of a mismatch is reduced significantly uh but obviously he he he didn't he didn't make those corrections but something had to give at the airlines International flights were the first to be affected but even for staff it came as a shock tasim one of King Fisher's cabin crew was about to take a flight home from her honeymoon I saw a lot of chaos outside the king fisher counter you know a lot of people standing there was a lot of queue initially I thought the flight is overbooked so that is how there's so much of a chaos and then when I went there uh I got to know that uh the flight's cancelled so that was after First Flight which was cancelled actually and uh an international flight of course you know so I mean this was something which I actually couldn't believe it was a sign of things to come so from one flight to two flights to three to four flights started getting cancelled in a day not only were flights being cancelled staff payments were already falling behind and this would escalate dramatically mid 2011 was the salary getting delayed by couple of days eventually a fortnite months months reminders till November December 2011 we had about 6 months salary pending the situation ran on for months and months as Banks and the government refused to help VJ Malia urged his staff to keep working despite the hard ships they faced we used to get Mals from him don't worry we are getting it done the aircraft is here so the salaries is coming up so what used to happen was say maybe after four or five communication males he used to get one month salary so that we can still survive with the expenses he kept on giving hopes that it it would be coming coming coming but nothing was coming forward kingfish's bosses promised again and again that all would be well staff needed to trust them and to be patient so everybody step put everybody cooperated no question marks because everybody was living on a hope that yes if if money is not being given to us or to if there's an issue I'm sure it is being used for good purposes whereby maybe we are sewing seeds now which we will get the fruits later whatever reasons were given by the management were accepted without pressure so why did the carry on working when it was clear the airline was in Dire Straits and they hadn't been paid for months just one name we JM we knew him as a as a fighter we knew him that he is a Survivor we knew him that he survived odds in the past maybe he's down but he's not out under Dr Malia's leadership staff continued to believe that all would be well but it would prove to be misguided everybody was was living on that faith faith not only on this gentleman but faith in the system that oh such a big company can't go [Music] down by mid 20102 Kingfisher Airlines was in desperate Straits the global financial crisis enormous debts and a failed merge were crippling it as Kingfisher struggled to keep afloat the stresses were weighing heavily on staff perhaps even compromising that most crucial aspect of any Airline safety now we had a classic example of stress pilots flying way back in 2011 12 two full years where a pilot who is to take decision at a 1,000 km an hour in Split Second we want him to fly with a revolver on his head not having been paid for the last 10 months the end was coming fast in October 2012 the authorities moved in the regulator the director general of Aviation decided that enough was enough they said that you you start paying the pilots because if you don't pay the pilots you endangering the the lives of the passengers paying bills becomes more important than flying those aircraft other considerations come in they get they get distracted so it's it's a very dangerous situation to be in for a passenger for staff it was the moments they had been dreading as I said when I walked into the gate and you know the premises in fact I saw the office gate locked I was shocked I mean very clueless about what had happened and uh that's when I got to know that the authorities had locked the uh office Gates and of course all my hopes my dreams everything were shattered I mean I was just on my head was spinning and I really didn't know what I was going through because as it is I was already you know pregnant and I was already in that stage of life where this kind of a pressure was something which I was really not being able to take the business was shuttered planes were impounded offices bolted licenses revoked when the airline lost its license um it was the end for for the for Kingfish Airlines and um for Dr vij Malia personally um it was a major hit to his pride whatever that that the kind of dreams that he had for the for the Airline uh was was shattered but it was of course much much worse for his staff I still remember that night and I still remember the impact it had on my father because he already was a stroke patient so uh as soon as he got to know this I mean you know he got his convulsion attack and we had to rush him to the max hospital and uh he was there he was in ICU for 3 days so it was a very tough time you know I I still feel it was a nightmare I still feel that actually I mean did this actually happen nobody could think of king fisher ending this way you know the times we had seen and you know that last one year was a true nightmare for us kingfisher's staff were at a loss the airline was dissolving in front of their eyes and now they were due many many months of pay mine would be around 10 month salary so it was 9 and a half month 10 month salary is due still due the financial hardships caused some shocking stories according to this lawyer I received a phone call where I was told that a employee was suffering from cancer he didn't have money for his treatment he used to call up the company that at least pay me something so that I can take care of my medical expenses he was not paid I was horrified that how a company in India can deal with its employees like this I was told that they have not been paid salaries for over years 2 years 2 and a half years they have not been paid they have been given false hopes false promises that they will be paid their salaries the same chairman and managing director in 2012 in a declaration to all the employees in a communication to all the employ employes had specifically said that the company is going to revive this is the promise which made the employees stick with the company work with the company and by the end of the time till today no payments have been made but then the story gets worse staff not only haven't been paid some of their income tax which was deducted by Kingfisher never made it to the government's coffers all companies India they had to take taxes whatever an employee earns they take part of that as taxes and then deposit it with the with the government of India now that part he was not doing it he was collecting the taxes from the employees salaries but he was not depositing it to the with the with the government he took that money and used it to fund the operations in some ways employees are actually giving him money back to run the the airline for staff including senior Pilots this was a shocking Discovery and it carried serious consequences for them that the tax deduction at source has been done by the company king fisher but not paid to the concern so I'm a defaulter as far as uh the income tax of India is concerned Captain rajif is far from alone fellow pilot Captain Mish is another facing difficulties as a result of King Fisher's actions the last sell I got was for June of 2012 so from June till November 2012 have not been paid plus the the income tax that has been deducted for 3 years before that is is 2009 10 10 11 111 12 has been deducted and not been paid to the government of India it's like we are sitting on a time bomb it's like a sword on my head even today ironically the very passengers who thought so highly of Kingfisher are now the lawyers behind some of the few successful legal cases so the uh courts have been very sympathetic towards the pilots and their dues and their uh conditions as they have been working really hard and uh they posed a lot of trust faith and confidence in Dr Malia and his organization so uh the courts were the judges were very uh sympathetic in fact they came down very harshly on King Fisher in any case with few assets remaining and a long line of creditors including big Banks the prospects of Staff getting their pay from the king fisher Empire are slim like I said 20 12 October from the time I saw the lock in the door till now now it's 2015 so it took me two long years to make myself understand and believe that I'm not going to get back what they owe me in a statement VJ Malia's office said Dr Malia has varied business interests over the past 35 years but these are separate corporate entities the UB group invested over $600 million us into Kingfisher Airlines showing more than the required level of shareholder commitment Kingfisher had three CEOs with experience in aviation all employees who showed up for work were paid tax payments were electronically processed and that frequently the India tax authorities make mistakes king fisher say they were not aware of the medical case we raised and that any employee facing usual distress was assisted [Music] fully yet there's an unmistakable sense of betrayal among staff who were devoted to King Fisher that's the personality change we like as a person I saw because we I like we we used to say sort of worship him the way he used to take care of his employes during the first four five years of king fisher we got everything we used to get free tickets we used to get family parties everything used to happen at that time he used to come come to the family parties mingle around with all all the families so even today what happens is he still ow owe us money but we still see that he's sitting in uh some island or he's still driving the racing cars worth few CR rupees everybody was living on that faith faith not only on this gentleman but faith in the system that oh such a big company can't go down but I think we were proved wrong we horribly wrong the collapse of the company does not seem to have dented vj's confidence nor it seems does he feel that he was responsible for the plight of his crew or Airline I can go go by the kind of statement that he has made to the shareholders of um United breweries there he has U explicitly stated that if not for the Leman Brothers crash American slowdown the economic crash that happened there uh and the oil prices going up he would still have been able to run that Airline so he still actually believes or he wants everybody to believe that it was not his fault but this unsurprisingly is not a view shared by all he was as Central as you could get everything revolved around him he couldn't build a management culture or a management structure which was commen state with the size of their operations because at one point of time they were almost flying 89 planes um it had over a billion dollar turnover pretty large operation it was centered around Dr Malia uh it B some good elements to it because his own Persona his you know his his connections with the media with the business that that got the benefits to the airline but you needed a management which could do the back end could create a cost structure align with the kind of operations build the middle and down down the line management that that to some extent was completely missing me and the Kingfisher Fiasco appears not to have dampened his enthusiasm for other businesses nor his capacity to spend money but this sits uneasily with the lawyers working to claim some of the unpaid salaries of their clients the same man is spending so lavishly on uh different other things so as to say I mean just to give examples like a cricket team or a Formula 1 we all understand that different companies are different corporate entities the person behind the show is the same man I remember one of his statements that I'm not going to sell my silver to pay pilot so which which is a very harsh comment I would say this is bad that's what I'm saying I think the only worst part which we ever thought about bad about him was after the closer we never like and the the and the communication not happening and then when we look at him today when we look at him or his family or his business Empire is still intact and what we the people lost was People Like Us people like our family in king fisher he still not he still still owns the [Music] empires so what next for those willing to keep fighting for what is owed to them there is a provision under the code where he can be arrested and kept in civil prison until and unless he makes his payments so that is one course that we are planning to take if the management does not pay the salaries the outstanding dues to the pilots who have the decree in their favor there are only a small number of cases in the courts but for some there are more critical questions that still need answering fundamental issues about trust between employees and employer and respons ability for when things go wrong I remember that very proud moment when I had called my parents to stage and they shared the stage with me while I was receiving the award from Dr Malia when I look back I still feel that was it actually a dream that Dr Malia was an amazing personality an amazing person he was people's person then so what happened to him later what changed him I think my only question question would be why shutting the airline I understand but he could have cleared our dues what he did to us was wrong and especially to people who've been loyal to him who stood by him so my only question would have been why Dr Mara