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Our Bureau

Pune , Dec. 16

KINGFISHER Airlines plans to set up a major training centre at Thane near Mumbai to deal with the problem of pilot shortage in the country.

Mr Vijay Mallya, Chairman of the UB group, who was here to attend the board meeting of UBICS Inc, said the airline is creating a fully equipped training centre with simulators and cabin trainers.

UBICS Inc is the US-headquartered IT division of United Breweries. He said, "The centre would not be exclusively for Kingfisher as it can also be used by the other airline players''.'

Commenting on the Kingfisher Airlines, Mr Mallya said within a span of seven months it is now plying 56 flights from the initial four. About eight A320s are in place and the ninth aircraft would land on Saturday. The tenth would be added to the fleet by January.

Looking at the airlines' success, he said the most sought after stretch is the Chennai-Bangalore-Pune-Ahmedabad which is running on 80 per cent load factor on a daily basis. About the Sahara bid by Kingfisher, Dr Mallya said Ernst and Young (E&Y) had requested for a valuation and that his company had only given that. E&Y has valued the Lucknow-based Air Sahara between $750 and $1 billion, but Kingfisher's independent valuation is understood to have fallen short of it.

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