Gopinath moves from passenger to cargo

Bangalore: After tapping fortune at the bottom of the pyramid through his low-cost airline experiment in India, Air Deccan founder Captain G.R. Gopinath is ready to set foot on the near virgin market of domestic air cargo. His new company, Deccan Cargo, will soon launch its operations and be independent of the UB Group.
The idea for an air cargo service occurred to Gopinath some time back when he encountered a series of problems reaching critical aircraft spares to Deccan’s grounded planes in Tier II cities.
"India has one of the largest GDP in the world, but we don’t have an integrated air cargo service in our country. There is a huge demand, and I don’t need a McKinsey to tell me that," Gopinath says. He, however, declined to indicate the size of the market or the investment he is making.
Audit firm KPMG’s Senior Advisor Mark D. Martin agrees: "The time for cargo has come. India always had a significant vacuum when it came to air cargo. The trade has grown significantly in the last 15-20 years. There is demand to transport time-definite cargo like computer parts, computer software, perishable goods like meat and fish. Whoever ventures into air cargo business now will virtually have the first-mover advantage."
07/04/08 K.R. Balasubramanyam/Business Today

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Categories: Cargo Apr 2008, New Apr 2008