Most passengers and visitors to Bengaluru International Airport pass by the model of Kingfisher Airline’s Airbus A340-500 at the entrance without a second thought.
When the airport opened in May 2008, Indian civil aviation knew no bounds, and everyone was waiting with baited breath for Kingfisher to announce it’s Bangalore to San Francisco non stop flight using the A340-500s.
Then came the industry crash, and Kingfisher cancelled it’s order for the A340s. At that time some PR person thought of painting the model with the A330 tag without realising that the A330s are twin engined wide bodies.
Recently Kingfisher withdrew it’s sole A330 flight from Bangalore, so an even smarter person has decided to paint an A320 tag on the tail of the aircraft. The Airbus A320 is a narrow-body, small, twin engined jetliner.
So folks in case you want a four engined wide bodied Airbus A320, please contact Dr. Vijay Mallya, we cannot guarantee it will fly though.
Incidentally, observe the white sticker covering the Kingfisher name. Some people at the airport claim that when Kingfisher does not pay it’s dues to the airport operators, the sticker is put. Others claim that the advertising contract for the model has expired and Kingfisher has not paid for the renewal of the contract and the model will be removed soon.