Chocks-on 14 MAR.,2014 NEWS OF AIR INDIANS ; BY AIR INDIANS ; & FOR AIR INDIANS A Brilliant interview ! Thorough professional speak. Clear focus and a radical action plan. His incisive knowledge of Indian Aviation Market, is remarkable. That I suppose is the grain & chemistry of a Professional versus what we have. The question that begs an answer is- Don’t we alI know what is WRONG ? Don’t we all know what correction is needed ? Do we need foreigners and outsiders to tell us WHAT to DO ? Yes, Foreigners certainly don’t know the real need and greed behind keeping and making Air India sick !!!! Read on…….. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ I would knock down & rebuild Air India: Tim Clark, CEO Emirates Q. Dubai recently got an additional 11,000 seats per week. But some sections of the industry have, once again, criticized it. What do you make of this? A. I dont know. You better ask them. I have been 40 years in the Middle East in aviation and its always been a mystery to me. I could never understand why they (the Indian government) were protecting Air India to the extent that they did. This went on for 10,15 years. Then things changed in 2003-04. It was as if suddenly the Indian government saw the light and the value of aviation to its economy. Then they invited many foreign carriers to increase their operations. You saw British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France coming in. We of course were given a big step increase. Everything was growing. In May 2008, we were given 54,250 seats. So by that progression, we thought by May 2015--seven years on--it would be 70,000-80,000 s .. But it flatlined. And its flatlined for quite a long time now. Q. Critics of the bilateral expansion say Indian traffic is being siphoned off to foreign carriers. A. Or that Emirates is the national carrier of India. Where did that even come from? We were encouraged and helped by the Indian government. So were the other foreign carriers. The government computation of non-resident Indians at that time (2008) was 50 million. I dont know where they got that figure from, but you could quadruple it, if you ask me. Those people were growing in prosperity. They had become naturalised citizens of Canada and the US. And boy did they travel! Then you had the IT revolution in India. These kids who were of Indian origin were now in Silicon valley. They started setting up their own SMEs in Hyderabad. We watched the huge growth. So when we were given 10 points in India, we took them. And we started flying people from India beyond Dubai into points that we were serving because they couldnt (otherwise) get there, unless they went halfway around the world to get there and paid extraordinarily high prices. What we did for the Indian community was to provide a value proposition that was measurable, effective and popular. Now pressure must have been brought to bear from the internal aviation sector of India to say dont let the foreign carriers in. But why? We can have third-party consultants measure what we do, how effective we have been and what Emirates has done for the Indian economy. Now to be held back from the greater good of India because some of the local players cant cut the mustard for whatever reason is a bit of a pity. Q. Does this mean the Indian government hasnt recognized the potential of its aviation industry? A. I am not going to criticize the Indian government on what it may or may not do. We have spent many years trying to extol the virtues of the aviation sector to those economies that are expansive in their thinking and liberal in their approach in the way they engage with other entities on the world stage. And India I thought had decided that was the way forward, because it is a powerhouse of the global economy. It can easily be that. It should be that. But if you stop people travelling or restrict what they can do, it doesnt make any sense to me. Q. With the bilateral enhancements, a US immigration clearance gateway in Abu Dhabi and another likely in Dubai, the Middle East will, more than ever, become a hub for Indian traffic. Where did India lose out? A. Thats because they (the government) didnt allow... If they had taken the brakes off, and the restrictions off, if they had allowed Indian aviation to take its natural course, foreign investment would have flowed in. You wouldnt have to go and say Oh, we are changing the law and giving 49% of foreign investment! You wouldnt have had to do that because it would have happened anyway, sooner. (India allowed foreign airlines to invest up to 49% in domestic carriers in September 2012.) So, could Mumbai have been a hub? Of course it could. Could Delhi have been a hub? Of course it could. But you have to allow carriers to come in and make it a hub and work it as a hub. The least you could have expected--no disrespect--from my Indian colleagues in airlines is to make it work (as a hub). I credit Emirates with the seeding and development of the notion that others in the region have tended to follow what we have done (in developing Dubai as a hub). But the transposition of that model (in India)--why couldnt that have happened? You would have had to build a bigger airport in Mumbai, you have already built a bigger airport in Delhi. Three runways, a great big terminal: its tailor made. And you have got a huge domestic demand. So take it together. What happened? I cant answer th .. What happened? I cant answer that. Its for the Indian entities to ask that question: Where were we when all this happened thousand miles to the west of us? Q Both Air India and Emirates are state owned. Yet there is such a huge difference. A. Why couldnt Air India have been an Emirates by now? What was to stop them from doing what we did? We had a clean sheet of paper. We started in 1985. But Air India has been around a long time. I was flying on Air India Super Constellations in 1958 as a boy. When we started, Air India already had 23 planes! Why didnt it grow? And now we are 214 aircraft, all widebodies. And Air India has just sold their Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft to Etihad. So its actually downsizing. With the growth of the Indian population, the Indian economy and the Indian entrepreneur populating Asia, Europe, America and South America, where is your national carrier? Q. What would you have done if you were heading Air India? A. I think I would knock down and rebuild or restart. I would run a business that was free of all legacy processes and all the baggage that comes with 50-60 years of trying to operate an airline. I would start with a clean sheet of paper. I would need all the ring-fencing and firewalling about external intervention--the position of CEO occupied by someone who is also the additional under-secretary-- all that will have to end. The airline will have to run on a purely commercial basis. And then, we would be fine. Q. The Jet-Etihad deal has now been completed. Whats stopping Emirates now from making a similar investment? A. Look, we have a lot of things to do. If we get involved in an Indian carrier, the time it takes to do that will absorb all the management time we have got. Look at how long it took the Jet-Etihad deal to get consummated and its still not quite there. So we have got a lot of (other) things to do and at the moment we are happy with what we have got although we would like more seats. But to get involved with an Indian carrier, I dont know. But Id never say never. Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes/articleshow/31910765.cms?curpg=2&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst Our Credo….”Network & Be Informed “ ( PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE : chocks-on.blogspot.in/ )
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 01:58:53 +0000
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