Synopsis Kingfisher Airlines is staring down the abyss.

With a combined debt of more than Rs 7500 crore, towering interest payments and high attrition the airline has be en grounded as it is unable to meet its working capital requirements. The lendin g banks are staring at a bad debt of nearly Rs 6000 crores. The airline is findi ng it hard to attract funding from even vulture funds. The airline started operations in 2005 and has been incurring losses ever since. Although the airline industry is unprofitable in general but mismanagement and lack of strategic direction has led the company in a perilous situation. The acq uisition of air Deccan in 2007 proved to be a costly blunder. The company has be en phenomenally unsuccessful in positioning its service portfolios including Kin gfisher First, Kingfisher Economy and Kingfisher red. Indian consumers are enorm ously price conscious and kingfisher has always placed itself in the premium seg ment leading to loss of customers to low cost airlines. Operational inefficiency and high fuel prices have not done the company any good either. In this paper we will try to analyze the various factors that have led the compa ny to this stage. We will study the aviation sector in India and try to compare Kingfisher with the other firms. This will include a detailed analysis of the Ki ngfisher Air Deccan deal and the strategic missteps involved in it. The next poi nt would be to predict what lies in store for the company in the coming days and whether Kingfisher is beyond the point of no return. And if possible, what are the steps that are needed to be taken in order to restore the company to a high growth path. Of course external factors like Policy, Macroeconomic conditions and increased c ompetition are of tremendous importance and will be given due attention in the a nalysis.