A Quest Aircraft Kodiak 100 seaplane owned by India's Seabird Seaplane (Kochi International) was seized at Kochi International airport given the stillborn carrier's debt, The Times of India has reported.
A liquidator appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) K K Jose said that no resolution regarding the aircraft's fate was reached during the ongoing insolvency proceedings.
Seabird Seaplane originally acquired the aircraft in 2015 with a plan to deploy it on non-scheduled services from Kochi to the Lakshadweep archipelago off the western coast of India. The airline operated a number of test flights between Kochi and Sri Lanka but failed to launch commercial operations.
In order to finance its launch, Seabird Seaplane took a INR42 million rupee (USD590,000) loan in 2014. By 2019, the unserviced debt increased to INR59.5 million (USD840,000). The airline has not been paying for the maintenance of its only seaplane which, as a result, is currently in a poor state.
