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 On
the occasion of Air Sahara’s ninth birthday Uttam Kumar Bose,
CEO of the airline in an exclusive speaks to Anindita Chattopadhyay
about the company’s future strategies
From
being an also-flew airline, it suddenly became a force to
reckon with. How would one describe an increase in market
share from four per cent to 12 per cent and a market share-capacity
ratio standing at 12:12 in just one year? Meteoric, right?
Yes, that’s what the growth graph of Air Sahara looks
like. However, it has got nothing to do with luck. It’s
all about the fallout of a well-planned strategy.
“After September 11, when everybody was lying low, we
decided to go in for expansion and a media blast to build
the perception. We had nothing to lose with a four per cent
market share but a whole lot to gain. Our innovative hot deals,
media splash and on-board services slowly but steadily caught
on. From January to July, we had an average load of 52 per
cent, which swelled to 68.4 per cent in October,” said
Uttam Kumar Bose. The utter satisfaction in his tone was not
to be missed.
Bose attributes this success mainly to their on-board service
concept. “Creating a perception is very important in
any service industry and we built a perception that we don’t
just fly airplanes, we fly feelings. It is easy to replicate
packages or fares, but the human factor needs to be cultivated
and would take a long time to copy. With the slogan ‘Always
More For You’, we strategically positioned ourselves
as an airline with a human face and our fliers liked the pampering,”
he averred. Plans are afoot to consolidate position. The airline’s
focus, according to Bose, is on connecting major metros as
well as regions to major hubs. While the first of the 12 150-seater
B-737-800s (for long-haul) will be delivered in December,
the last seven of the eight Canadian regional jets manufactured
by Bombardier will be inducted by first week of January. Elaborating
on the carrier’s regional connectivity plan, Bose said,
“A huge feeder market exists to be explored. The state
capitals and small cities with industrial growth are not inter-connected.
Bombardier fits the bill because it can fly non-stop for four
hours and would enable us to connect hubs to regional destinations.
We will start afternoon flights to major hubs except in Del-Bom-Del
route, while servicing regional routes in the morning.”
Come January 3, the carrier would start operations in Kolkata-Ranchi-Mumbai,
Delhi-Lucknow-Gorakhpur-Kolkata, Delhi-Allahabad, Delhi-Agra-Goa-Delhi,
Mumbai-Khajuraho-Agra-Jaipur-Mumbai routes. Plans to connect
Kolkata-Raipur, Kolkata-Kanpur, Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Lucknow-Patna,
Patna-Varanasi and major hubs with Indore, Bhopal and Varanasi
are in the pipeline.
From mid-December, operations will commence on the Chennai-Mumbai
and Chennai-Kolkata routes. The CEO said, “We have a
major expansion plan in place for the southern region and
Chennai will figure as an important air corridor for introducing
new long-haul connections besides link feeder routes like
Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and other holidaying destinations.”
No, the carrier doesn’t have plans to start low-cost,
no-frills services because operational cost is much higher
in India. As he went on to explain, “State sales tax
on TF amounts to almost 30 per cent, of the operational cost,
16 per cent is excise duty and 14 per cent is navigation and
landing charge. Hence, no frills would mean cutting cost on
food which is negligible - Rs 150 at the most. Further, Indian
fliers like to be pampered. In fact, it makes a difference.”
The airline is not basking in its glory, but looking at a
19-20 per cent market share and a turnover of Rs 750 crore
by the end of this fiscal year. It has already got some large
corporate clients its kitty such as GE, Reliance, ITC, PwC,
Pepsi, Coke, Electrolux, Samsung, M&M, ONGC and Indian
Oil among others. At this pace, it would soon give the top
two domestic carriers a run for their money.
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