Corporate Governance Failure of Five-Star Accredited “Kingfisher Airlines”

With the spree in the reported cases of mis-governance leading to erosion of stakeholders’ wealth and splurge in governance deficit, this paper seeks to highlight the problems that plagued fivestar accredited Kingfisher Airlines and to critically evaluate its governance strategies leading to its demise. The paper details the probe by investigating agencies against the airline and desired policy actions taken so that such situation is not repeated in the country again. Using extensive literature-based information from various secondary sources, a case study approach has been adopted in this paper and the same has been critically evaluated using stakeholders’ theory. The study supports that apart from external threat and lack of governance, laxity on the part of the management board led to the collapse of the carrier. The outcome of this paper provides connotations for the academicians, practitioners and companies engaged in aviation sector and might help them avoid such failures in future thereby creating sustainable business that work in the long-run interests of all stakeholders of the company.