Bengaluru: For about a year, AirAsia India, the joint airline of Tata Sons and the Tony Fernandes-owned AirAsia Bhd, had halted any adding of planes and destinations, citing government policy barriers on expanding to routes abroad. It also faced challenges such as increased competition from larger rivals such as IndiGo and GoAir, and exit of its first chief executive, Mittu Chandilya. In March, Tata Sons increased stake and brought in Amar Abrol, former American Express executive, who was heading TPaay Asia, a mobile wallet owned by AirAsia in Malaysia, to run the fledgling airline. “We are here for the long haul,” he tells Raghu Krishnan. Edited excerpts:
How has been the experience over the past few months?
Great to come back home. I have been out of the country for 20 years. It is the right time to get into civil aviation. The policy is set, we have got the funding, the team is in place and we are on a growth trajectory. We have all the right ingredients to make us successful in India.
How are you scaling up?
We have started our next chapter. We inducted the seventh aircraft and it goes commercial on September 22. As we speak, we sold 70 seats. Our intention is to get to 20 aircraft as soon as possible. It takes effort to get there -- aircraft induction, building teams, keeping stations ready and all of this without compromising on safety and security.
How long will you take to reach 20 aircraft. Six months to one year?
It depends on the team. We've all rolled up our sleeves and begun work. The biggest hurdle is, do we have money in our pocket? We have money now and it takes three to nine months for inducting a pilot, training, meeting DGCA (sector regulator) requirements and there are multiple moving parts. We are training all through the nights. I am in a rush to get there. It takes nine months to have a baby; I am only four months old.
After 20 planes, would you look at flying outside of India?
Our natural strength is Asia. AirAsia as a group pretty much owns the skies in Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, China, Korea and Japan. Everything is eastward. We have a massive network and we will plug into that. We will also fly westward. The A320 (aircraft) offers four to four and a half hours, so anything that comes with that radius from cities in India, we will try to fly. It has to be commercially viable but there is a natural synergy to take advantage of, the full entire infrastructure, airports, in Malaysia and beyond.
Are you profitable?
We just turned the corner in April, started gross profit-positive. That is the first hurdle. The second is to get cash-positive; the third is to get to Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes)- positive. We will continue to make investments. The airline industry is quite interesting in that perspective. You have got to invest now and fly six months later. Certainly, there will be heavy investments being made in six, 12, 18 months from now. We are the only airline that has a 25-minute turnaround; whatever we save there, it goes to the consumer. We are the only airline that has fairly efficient fuel burn ratios. We have a number of things we do efficiently that allows us to keep our overall costs low.
19/08/16 Business Standard
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How has been the experience over the past few months?
Great to come back home. I have been out of the country for 20 years. It is the right time to get into civil aviation. The policy is set, we have got the funding, the team is in place and we are on a growth trajectory. We have all the right ingredients to make us successful in India.
How are you scaling up?
We have started our next chapter. We inducted the seventh aircraft and it goes commercial on September 22. As we speak, we sold 70 seats. Our intention is to get to 20 aircraft as soon as possible. It takes effort to get there -- aircraft induction, building teams, keeping stations ready and all of this without compromising on safety and security.
How long will you take to reach 20 aircraft. Six months to one year?
It depends on the team. We've all rolled up our sleeves and begun work. The biggest hurdle is, do we have money in our pocket? We have money now and it takes three to nine months for inducting a pilot, training, meeting DGCA (sector regulator) requirements and there are multiple moving parts. We are training all through the nights. I am in a rush to get there. It takes nine months to have a baby; I am only four months old.
After 20 planes, would you look at flying outside of India?
Our natural strength is Asia. AirAsia as a group pretty much owns the skies in Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, China, Korea and Japan. Everything is eastward. We have a massive network and we will plug into that. We will also fly westward. The A320 (aircraft) offers four to four and a half hours, so anything that comes with that radius from cities in India, we will try to fly. It has to be commercially viable but there is a natural synergy to take advantage of, the full entire infrastructure, airports, in Malaysia and beyond.
Are you profitable?
We just turned the corner in April, started gross profit-positive. That is the first hurdle. The second is to get cash-positive; the third is to get to Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes)- positive. We will continue to make investments. The airline industry is quite interesting in that perspective. You have got to invest now and fly six months later. Certainly, there will be heavy investments being made in six, 12, 18 months from now. We are the only airline that has a 25-minute turnaround; whatever we save there, it goes to the consumer. We are the only airline that has fairly efficient fuel burn ratios. We have a number of things we do efficiently that allows us to keep our overall costs low.
19/08/16 Business Standard
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