All the supposed animosity of Capt. Gopinath towards Vijay Mallya’s “interest” in Air Deccan was turned on it’s head as Mallya’s UB Holdings, the parent company of Kingfisher Airlines, picked up a 26% stake in Deccan Aviation (Air Deccan) for around Rs.550 crore at Rs.155 / share, valuing the low cost carrier at Rs.2,220 crore.


Air Deccan was bleeding heavily and had upto 31st May to pump in additional funds / rope in a strategic investor, which was a commonly known fact. A few weeks ago, Capt. Gopinath had the equivalent of an apopletic fit when Mallya expressed an interest in the airline, saying Mallya should run his own airline and leave Air Deccan alone. He also said that he was from Mars and Mallya from Venus, indicating they were poles apart.

On his part, Mallya was quite unperturbed, and said there was no harm in merely expressing interest in a publicly listed company, and that his own company could also be the object of someone’s interest.

Within days of this face-off however, Gopinath was in his element at Mallya’s birthday bash, standing shoulder to shoulder with him and even feeding him a piece of birthday cake. If politicians make strange bedfellows, the airline industry is proving to be tough competition !! :)

Capt. Gopinath will now be the Chairman and Vijay Mallya the Vice-Chairman. Air Deccan’s CFO Ramki Sundaram will be the new CEO. Both airlines will continue to operate in their own market segments, under their own brand names.

This is the third combine to form in recent months, after Jet Airways-Air Sahara and Air India-Indian.

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