AURO UNIVERSITY OF HOSPITALITY AND

MANAGEMENT
KINGFISHER AIRLINES: ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL
PRACTICES

BUSINESS ETHICS

MBA
Block-5 SEM-3

Made by:
KANIKA SHAH
DIVYA LOHIA
(MBA 14-16)

SUBMITTED TO:
Mr. Bhautik Sheth

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express my gratitude to Mr. Bhautik Sheth for his expert guidance, encouragement and
suggestion throughout the preparation of this work. He has been a pillar of support and inspired
my throughout this study, without him this would not have been possible.
I am grateful to the teaching faculties of School of Management & Entrepreneurship for their
valuable suggestions and instruction regarding my work. I have also received tremendous
amount of help from our friends insight and outside the institute.
-Kanika Shah
- Divya Lohia

KINGFISHER AIRLINES: ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL

PRACTICES
INTRODUCTION:
Kingfisher airlines is a largest Indian airline company and has operated more than four hundred
flights .It provides both domestic as well as international services. It has around 72 networks of
destinations, with in or region and abroad or international services. Kingfisher Airlines has
holding companies named United Breweries Group.
Kingfisher Airlines is one of the six largest airlines in all over world with given five star rating
by skytrax . In the month of may 09, the Kingfisher airlines has been carried around more than a
million of million peoples or passengers . It has its office in Bangalore and its head office in in
Mumbai.
HISTORY:
Kingfisher has its office in Bangalore and its head office in Mumbai. The kingfisher airline has
started on 9 May 2005. Its first flight was from Mumbai to Delhi. At the time of the airline, Dr.
Vijay Malaya said that he has the capability for achieving our goals.
Kingfisher is the largest Indian private airline and has their own reputation in the market.
Kingfisher was the first largest Indian airline to have in-flight entertainment systems on every
seat even on domestic flights. All the passengers were given a kit consisting such as a pen , facial
tissue and headphones to use with the IFE system. The passengers were able to watch only
recorded TV programming on the IFE system, but after the advancement of technology, an
alliance was formed with Dish TV to provide live TV in-flight..
On the month of July 14th 2008, Kingfisher introduce its first ever Wide body aircraft , a Airbus
A330-200 at the Farnborough Air show held in July 2008. Kingfisher's first Airbus A330-200
was widely billed as the best A330-200 ever built by Airbus.

On the month of September 3, 2008, Kingfisher started its international services by connecting
Bangalore with London. On the month of 15th sept.2009. The London service was withdrawn
due to some problem arises.
Kingfisher Airlines serves more then 50-60 domestic destinations and 7-9 international
destinations in 7-8 countries across Europe and Asia.
Services:It provides the various classes discussed below:Cabin Classes:-Domestic
First Kingfisher :The domestic First Kingfisher seats have a 48inch seat and a 125 degree seat. In every seat
there , a laptop and mobile phone chargers available. Passengers can get the latest international
newspapers and magazines. There is also a excellent service on board Kingfisher First cabins.
Every seat is equipped with a IFE system , which offers a wide range of English and Hindi TV
programmes ,Hollywood and Bollywood movies, 10 channels of Kingfisher Radio, and 16 live
TV channels. Passengers also get noise cancellation headphones.
Domestic First Kingfisher is only available on selected Airbus A320 family 321 aircraft.
Kingfisher Class:The domestic Kingfisher Class has 32-34inch seat . Every seat is equipped with IFE systems onboard the Airbus A320 family aircraft. The passengers can access the live TV and Kingfisher
Radio, latest movies, English and Hindi TV programmes and still more features etc.
On-board the ATR 72-500.There are 17 colour LCD screens mounted along with loudspeakers
for audio in the cabin overhead, a head-end unit to handle CDs and DVDs, and a crew control
panel. The screens measure 12.7cm by 9.3cm, weigh 0.2kg each and are spaced every two or
three seat rows along both sides of the cabin.

Kingfisher Red:After Kingfisher Airlines, it is Airline Deccan, its name was firstly Kingfisher airlines after it
was changed to Deccan and afterwards changed to Kingfisher Red. Kingfisher Airline's and yes
it is low-cost class on domestic routes. Passengers are given in-flight meals and water. Kingfisher
Airlines is the first largest airline in India to extend its King Club frequent flyer program to its
low-cost carrier as well. Passengers can earn King Miles even when they fly Kingfisher Red,
which they can redeem for free tickets to travel on Kingfisher Airlines or partner airlines.
ETHICS :One of the largest private airline named Kingfisher airlines We or our or the
company commitment to ethical , regulation and lawful firm business conduct is not only critical
to the Firm success to ethical and lawful business conduct is important to the Company's success,
and also a fundamental shared value of its employees. The norms for business is very important
as other firm has. The ethical and legal norms fastly, so that we can achieve our financial goal or
objective and the Board of Director as senior management will not compromise with honesty and
integrity.
According to these principles, the Board of the Director has adopted this ethical and Business
conduct as a path to legal and high ethical norms expected of its Board of Director as a senior
management.
Company Acknowledgement has given by the member of the Board of the Directors and its
senior management:1. The responsibility to run out their duties in an honest and business like manner .
2. They are entrusted with and the responsible for the over sight of the assets and business affairs
of the firm in an honest, diligent, fair and ethical manner, or with the duty to make and enact
informed decisions and policies in the best interests of the firm.
According to the Board of the Director, the Board had adopted this code and the Director of the
senior management are expected to adhere to the standards of good faith, loyalty and the
avoidance of conflict of interest are given below:

In order to perform their duties, the directors of senior management will:

1. Act honestly, ethically, openly, having good faith and with honest integrity.
2. Act responsibly, having good faith and with care, diligence and competence, without adopting
their independent judgement to be subordinated.
3. Act in the best interest of, and ful fill their obligation to the firm or company and its
stakeholder.
4. Give their best output to advancing or to improving the firm or company interest and should
act in that manner so that it will maintain and enhance the reputation of the firm or company.
5. Abide by all applicable laws and regulations, confidentiality obligations and specially with the
Company's Insider Trading Rules;
6. Should become always familiar with the firm or company business and the competitive or
economic environment in which it operates and understand its strategies, the principle plans and
the objectives; operation result and financial condition.
7. Conduct all things themselves in a courteous, respectful and yes in professional manner.
8. Always beware of and comply with rules and regulation that govern the conduct of the
business in all jurisdictions where the firm or company operates.
9. Always commit the time which is required to prepare for, attend and actively participate in
important meeting of the Board of Director as a senior management on which they serve.
10. Always Disclose potential conflicts of interest that they may have regarding any matters that
may come before the Board, and abstain from discussion and voting on any matter in which the
Director/Senior Manager has or may have a conflict of interest;
11. Always disclose their duties, as member of the Board of directors and any of Board
committees on which they act as director of senior management in accordance with their good
faith business judgement and in the best interest of the company.
12. Always inform the chairman of the Board of director about the changes in the company like
changes in their employment, governmental entities, board position , charitable, relationship with

business and other events, conditions or circumstances that may interfere their ability to run their
duties or impact the Board assessment of whether they meet the requirements.
13. Always maintain the private information of all material non-public private information about
the company and its affairs and business.
14. Make available to and share with fellow Directors and senior management personnel
information as may be appropriate to ensure proper conduct and sound operation of the
Company;
15. Should not enter into, without approval of the uninterested members of the Board of
Director , Not enter into, without the prior approval of the disinterested members of the Board,
relationship with the company in which they will have a personal interest or any other situation
which otherwise involves a conflict of interest.
16. Should not used private information which is gained in the time of their services as directors
of senior management for their personal advantage.
17. Should provide or give leadership, motivation in implementing or advancing the firm vision,
principles and values.
18. Respect the private information related to the current affairs of the firms which is gained in
the course of their own services as Directors, except when legally or authorized required to hide
such type of information related to the company or firm.
19. Always use the Company assets and resources properly and safely. Company resources as
well as assets of other firm that have been entrusted to the firm.
20. Never entertainment or enjoy or any other company business from people doing business
with the company or firm.
All the senior management or Director of the company have annually on or before the month of
30th June of every year All Directors and Senior Management Personnel will annually on or
before June 30 of every year or such other date as may be determined in this regard sign a
confirmation that they have read and will comply with this Code.
This is an example of a student's work

Non-Compliance:All the suspected violations must be reported to the chairman of the Company of Firm. All the
suspected violations has been investigated by the company as they have the capability. The
Board of Director who violate this code may be subject to sanction, has to resign as Director.
Amendments and Waivers:The company or the firm was continuously updating its all regulations and policies. The
Company is continuously reviewing and updating all its policies and procedures and therefore
this Code is subject to modification. The board of directors of the firm or company have
approved the waivers and amendment which is given by the company to the employees.
ETHICAL ACTIVITICS:1. Equal opportunities provides by kingfishers airline:The company will provide equal opportunities who are recruited for their skills , aptitude,
experience and ability. There is no discrimination among the employees on gender, age, marital
status, sexual orientation, religious belief or any other unlawful reason is not permitted. who are
working in the company. And have given equal opportunities in their employment.
You are responsible for upholding and implementing the Group's equal opportunity policy in the
workplace and any other policy dealing with such matters. Details of the Company's Equal
Opportunities policy can be found on the intranet.
2. Health and safety:The company has already mentioned in the laws and regulations relating to environment that it is
our responsibility of every employee to help ensure that their working place environment is both
healthy and safe for the benefit of our employees ,customers and other member who are working
in the company
And if there is anyone who does not follow the laws, the company will take strict actions against
them . This all is very important for company future and yes for employee because you know
that Healthy environment, better company future.It requires you to be careful about your own

health and safety, as well as the health and safety of all those who may be affected by your
behaviour. You must follow all instructions and guidelines dealing with such matters and cooperate with those responsible for ensuring that all applicable health and safety requirements are
followed. Kingfisher airlines hired a special senior manager especially for health and safety
programs. We need to learn from minor incidents and 'near misses' in order that we can avoid
similar, but possibly more serious accidents in the future. We therefore encourage any employee
who is aware of a potentially dangerous situation to report it to their line manager or a senior
officer of the company without delay.
3. Primary Education
The company also provide quality education to children for there and also provide nutrition
which give the children to create their interest in study.

Company runs the Awareness programmes.

Company provide Infrastructure for existing schools

Company provide Financing payroll of teachers or support staff appointed.

Company also Providing meals.

3. Water Availability
Kingfisher airlines has also taken various steps for conservation of water resources and facilitate
access to clean and portable drinking water. It includes :

Rain water harvesting

Providing portable drinking water to communities.

CERTAIN ACHIECVEMENTS ON THE BASIS OF ETHICAL ACTIVITIES:

Three global awards had given to Kingfisher Airlines awards at the SKYTRAX World
Airline Awards.

'Best

Airline

in

India'

and

'Best

Cabin

Crew-Cental

Asia..

Kingfisher RED named Best low cost Airline in india.

Kingfisher Airlines has received NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award by NDTV
twice in two year.

Skytrax has rated Kingfisher airlines India's 5 Star airline and6th best airline in the world.

Agfaqs has rated India's 'Second Buzziest Brand 2008'.The Reporter of this brand ranked
amongst India's 'Top Service Brand of 2008.

A survey is conducted by an company, it is found that the Kingfisher airline is the 'India's
Favourite Brand'.

A survey is conducted by TNS and has been found that Kingfisher airlines is best Asia
Pacific's 'Top Airline Brand'.

Kingfisher airlines has also received the 'Brand Leadership Award' in hospitality.

Kingfisher airline has received the Economic Times Avaya Award 2006 foe Excellence in
Customer Responsiveness.

Kingfisher airline has received the 'India's No. 1 Airline in customer satisfaction'.

Kingfisher airline has received the 'India's most respected companies'.

Asurvey conducted by Planman Media in 2006 has rated 'India's 25 Innovation

Companies'.

A Survey conducted by IMB ,it is found that the kingfisher airlines 'The Best Airline' and
'India's Favourite Carrier'.

Kingfisher airlines has received the 'Best New Domestic Airline for Excellent Services
and Cuisine'.

Skytrax has given to Kingfisher airlines the best 'Service Excellence 2005-2006 for a new
airline.

A Survey is conducted by Business magazine and has awarded the best 'India's Most
Successful Brand Launch of 2005'.

'Buzziest Brands of 2005'.

ranked amongst the Top Ten buzziest brands of 2005and 2006 across product categories,
in the survey conducted by agencyfaqs and The Brand Reporter

Rated amongst the 'Top Ten Internet Advertisers' by Yahoo.

Rated amongst 'the top ten in the Best Television Commercial Jingles' by NDTV.

'Best New Airline of the year' Award for 2005 centre for Asia Pacific Aviation Award in
the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region.

UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES:The unethical practices of Kingfisher airlines and there are many cases against Kingfisher.
Case 1:-

Ticket of Kingfisher Airlines

I have purchased a kingfisher airline ticket from Mumbai to Bhuvneshwar . And
this ticket was booked by one of their travel agents who is working for there company.
I was given the Kingfisher airlines ticket with facilities like meal etc. In the very coming day
when I reached at Mumbai airport of Kingfisher terminal I was shocked that the flight is operated
by Deccan & not by Kingfisher. The ticket for the same plane of Deccan is approx. 4100 and I
am already pay the same plane of kingfisher airline is around 7000 approx. This whole thing is
unethical business. When I reached Kingfisher airline terminal I was shocked to know that flight
is of Deccan which is from other terminal & travel time is approx. 30 min
from one terminal to other.
Anyhow I managed to board the flight1) No Meal was served to me as it clearly mentioned on the
ticket.
2) They had not told to us that the flight is operated by Deccan airlines and not by Kingfisher
airlines .
3) I had paid more For Deccan airline.
4)I have sent the mail to Kingfisher and received the reply from
Kingfisher officials.
This whole is unethical business practice by Kingfisher airlines .
Case 2:Refund of Voucher issued in place of cancellation of tickets.

My communication has been extremely clear that I would look forward for revalidating the
voucher issued to me, but in spite of repeated mails I am not able to get a valid response and the
customer friendly attitude- customer first thing does not seem to come across. I have also gone
through the circular issued by the Civil Aviation authorities and drawn the attention of your staff
members towards the same.
My request has been to re validate / re issue the voucher, so that I can avail of your services and
should not be penalized for canceling a ticket. Am sure you would appreciate the fact that since

the voucher is not transferable, I only have to travel- and I would travel only when it is required.
Surely I would not avail of any leave and go to a destination just to avail the voucher. You may
also want to consider the option of refunding the same.
The intention of encouraging me to use your services or an attempt to do so has not reflected so
far. Going by the book and snapping the relation is the simplest thing that one can do. I know for
sure that an organization of your stature and repute is brand conscious and customer friendly,
quite surprisingly the responses received are contradictory.
This is totally unethical practices of kingfisher airlines.
Case 3:Unclear Excess Baggage Rules by Staff at the Counter
The staff at the kingfisher counter is unaware of the contract for carriage rules and is misguiding
the passengers .I was carrying an important demo to be shown to some buyers and this weighed
more than 35Kgs. The person at the counter declined to accept the baggage and I had to cancel
the ticket and meetings for next day. I travelled without this baggage and now the airline has
asked me to produce copies of the past counterfoils to justify their position.The lot appears to be
unqualified for their jobs and takes the passengers for granted at the cost of the passengers'
expense I wish the Chairman of this airline Mr. Vijay Mallya notices this complaint and takes
appropriate action to keep up the reputation of his airlines.
Case4:Refused to refund/issue another ticket.
I had booked a ticket from Delhi to Pune on 16/06/2009,ane the departure time of that airline was
8:50 pm. But when I reached Delhi airport, I was surprised that the departure time of flight
displayed on the boards was 9:15 pm Then I go to customer support and had confirmed that the
departure time of flight was 9:15.
When I came to airport I was surprised that flight was on time, when I asked the Kingfisher
executives about this case their reply was "Sir, we are extremely sorry, look they have the
obesity to say sir we are extremely sorry this happened due to a communication gap between the
Crew members and the executives at the ticket reservation counter."

So, I asked for another Ticket in place of my ticket or to refund the amount, but they refused.
They have just provided me re-booking charges of Rs. 750 when I issued another ticket (paying
Rs. 3000 extra for it) from them on the spot.
I want the full refund of my ticket as I have to suffer due to some communication gap between
their own staff.
Case 5:Frequent Cancellation/Rescheduling of Flights
I am Pursuing Engineering in SASTRA University Tanjore Tamil Nadu. When I came for
vacation and the college was to reopen on 24th june 2009. I had reserved the tickets from Delhi
to Chennai in Kingfisher Airlines scheduled to depart from the airport is 12:15 PM. Before
leaving from Airport I checked the Kingfisher airline site and found that the flight was on time.
But when I came to airport I came to know that the flight has been cancelled after reaching the
airport. When I returned home which is nearly 30 kms from my house. The Kingfisher airlines
did not provide proper information and i have to cancell the onward railway ticket from to
chennai to trichy and lost around Rs 750 as it was booked under tatkal. And also i have incured a
sum of Rs 1000 towards conveyance from residence to airport and vice-versa. So I have
rescheduled my travel for 25th for IT-232as I could get the railway reservation on 25th only by a
train leaving at 3:30 PM. Today morning I was informed through my father's mobile that the
flight has been delayed and will start at 8:50 Hours. This has created a confusion and contacted
the airline and thy inform that no such rescheduling has been done. In the evening one more
message came that the flight has been rescheduled for 1 PM which will again result in
cancellation of the railway reservation as i would not be able to catch it as the probable time of
the flight would be around 4 PM if at all no more rescheduling take place. So I am still not sure
about my travel plan Already on account of the above I have lost 2 days attendance and also
important classes and lab. Because of this I have to face university authorities for explanation.
By the above act of Kingfisher Airlines i have lost around Rs 5000 & a lot of peace in my mind.
For the last 2 days i was in great tension so i hereby request that proper punitive action against
the airlines. A proper response from you would enhance the reputation of your organization.
Case 6:-

Contaminated Water Served on-board

When I had travelled from Jamshedpur to Kolkata on the 30th of April, 2009. When I was served
with a bottle of water on-board which was contaminated and had fungus in it . On the basis of
mere faith that airlines provide non-spurious edibles and drinking water, I had consumed the
water post which I started having nausea. I immediately escalated the matter to the cabin crew
who after inspecting, agreed that the water had fungus and the only thing that she can do is lodge
a formal complaint which I presume has been done. On disembarking in Kolkata, I vomited
thrice and after that my health has deteriorated.
My health had got affected and I missed all the important appointments which was held in
Kolkata on the 30th of April, 09. I have sent many emails to kingfisher airline office but the only
one reply that I had got is "We have tell the issue immediately with our suppliers who are
conducting a through investigation into the matter .We thank you for your feedback and hope
you will favour us with your blessings".
This has been going on from the past one month now I think Kingfisher Airlines should take a r
of the seriousness of this situation and compensate me accordingly.

Case 7:
Delay and non-comfortable seats:When I had travelled through Kingfisher on 28.05.09 from delhi to hyderabad . In this day the
flight was late, something around 40 minutes and we are sitting in the plane for almost one hour
as the flight got delayed after boarding the flight.On the same day when I came again, the flight
was again late something around more than eighty minute. And there is no arrangement was
made for snacks etc for the morning and evening flight at the airport.
There is no facility on the seats in the plane on the return journey which caused lot of problems
to the passengers. I have never seen this kind of unavailability of in the plane.
You s such planes which are so inconvenient to travel. This all case shown that the Kingfisher
had done very unethical practices.

REFERENCES:1. http://www.flykingfisher.com/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingfisher_Airlines
3. http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/kingfisher-airlines-c65177.html