Can Captain Gopinath replicate the success of Air Deccan in his second stint?
Almost a decade after he sold his startup airline Air Deccan to Vijay Mallya, Captain GR Gopinath, India’s first low-fare warrior, is back in the game.
It’s a different world though: Mallya is absconding, the reasons for which Air Deccan was bought don’t exist and Gopinath’s priorities are different.
“I still miss Air Deccan,” Gopinath told Mint on Thursday adding that metros dominate passenger traffic in India.
But, this flying pattern has to change. “I have always said connectivity is key to growth and the hinterland of India, deep in its bowels, needs to be air-linked to metros for equitable growth,” he said, adding, “Air Deccan had the largest such network even bigger than Air India 15 years ago. We hope we can do our bit again.”
Indeed, when it was bought over by Mallya, Air Deccan had 43 planes, 22% market share by passengers and 350 daily flights to 61 destinations.
It had also become famous for flying the common man. That was its logo. Air Deccan used to offer cheap fares starting ₹1 (excluding taxes and surcharges), and often angering rival airlines.
In 2017, the government’s new scheme Udan has also been positioned itself to achieve the same. Passengers need to pay ₹2,500 for one- hour flights. The focus is to connect smaller regional towns.
When Gopinath had struck a deal in 2007 with Mallya, he had hoped the two brands and airlines will remain separate and predicted a collapse if they were merged. However, they were merged as only Air Deccan’s licence could be used under government rules for Kingfisher to fly abroad, and Mallya wasn’t very fond of the low-cost airline concept compared with his luxury product.
Government rules then mandated five years of local flying before international debut. These rules were scrapped last year.
“If it was a merger, then it was deemed to fail as there cannot be any fit between the two companies — culturally or in terms of the business model,” Gopinath had said in 2007. “We are good friends and enjoy drinking a beer together. But that’s all. Our vision and philosophy are totally different.”
A decade on, Kingfisher has gone belly up and investigating agencies have launched probe into the airline’s finances.
Gopinath knows he has to start afresh. He said he will use smaller 18-19 seater planes to connect several remote locations of the country side-stepping the big boys.
The airline has won rights to fly Delhi-Agra, Kolkata-Burnpur, Kolkata-Cooch Behar, Bagdogra-Durgapur, KolkataJamshedpur, Kolkata-Rourkela, Shillong from various cities in the north east, Dehradun-Pantnagar and DelhiPantnagar, MumbaiKolhapur, Mumbai-Jalgaon, Mumbai-Nashik, Pune-Nashik, Mumbai-Sholapur
An analyst welcomed Gopinath’s re-entry in the civil aviation sector. “We welcome him back and wish him great luck but it will be a tough task to make it work,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO, south Asia, CAPA.