'Deeply Sorry, But No Excuses': Vijay Mallya Breaks Silence on Kingfisher Airlines Collapse After 13 Years

The growth and fall of Kingfisher Airlines has been clarified by spirits tycoon Vijay Mallya. Mallya was asked whether he had any final words for the thousands of underpaid workers who experienced the Kingfisher Airlines debacle during a recent podcast with Raj Shamani. It is estimated that Kingfisher Airlines owes around Rs 300 crore in unpaid debts to its former workers. In response to Shamani's question, Mallya said, "Apologetic? What do I apologise for? After putting Rs 3,000 crores of my own money into the business, I should apologise?"

Then, he was asked if he had an apology—not for anybody else, but simply for the Kingfisher Airlines employees. To this he said, "I would say I am deeply sorry for what happened to them. I would say I am deeply sorry that some of them didn't get paid their salaries. I have no excuses to offer. I take full responsibility, but for those who care to listen, there was money lying in the deposit with the Karnataka High Court. I specifically applied to court to pay their salaries, of Kingfisher Airlines staff. But the banks rejected it, and the courts rejected the permission. There was really nothing I could do beyond that.”

Mallya responded, "We need to look at the timeline here," when asked why he "partied like a king" on his 60th birthday in spite of the unpaid wages. “In 2012, Kingfisher Airlines ceased operations. December 2015 was my 60th birthday. In the meanwhile, there was little I could do to secure funds to specifically pay the employees. Because all of my assets were frozen, the banks would have confiscated any money that could have been infused,” he said.

Mallya is charged with stealing more than Rs 9,000 crore (about $1.2 billion) from a group of Indian banks, mostly by using loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Vijay Mallya claimed in February of this year that the Rs 6,200 crore he owed banks had been recouped "multiple times over" and asked the Karnataka High Court for a statement of accounts that included the sums that had been retrieved from him, United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL, which is currently in liquidation), and other certificate debtors. After fleeing India in 2016, Mallya has been living in the UK after being charged with fraud and money laundering.