Indigo president earns himself a hefty pay hike

India?s largest airline by passenger carried and the only profitable airline in the 2011-12 fiscal, IndiGo, has rewarded its president Aditya Ghosh with a 218% pay hike. However, Ghosh, 36, who now earns Rs 1.15 crore including salary and reimbursements, remains one of the lowest paid airline chiefs in the country.

The Delhi-based low-cost carrier, has thus rewarded its president, but stuck to its strategy of keeping its costs under control.

The airline, till date, does not have a corporate communications department and has one of the lowest employee to aircraft ratio of close to 100:1.

The decision to hike Ghosh?s compensation was taken by the board of Interglobe Aviation, the company that runs IndiGo, on September 20. Apart from his salary and reimbursements, he is also entitled to perquisites of up to R2.34 crore annually. Typically perquisites include housing and transportation.

The IndiGo chief, a former lawyer, joined the airline in 2007 and since then, he has overseen the airline go from a 18-aircraft fleet with 2,000 employees serving 17 domestic destinations to a 57-aircraft fleet, nearly 6,000 employees and flying to over 32 international and domestic airlines.

Under Ghosh, the airline became profitable in 2008-09 and has remained profitable ever since. According to aviation consultancy firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), IndiGo is expected to post a profit of Rs 363.58 crore in the first three quarters of the 2012-13 fiscal.

The airline has managed to remain profitable by a mix of aircraft sale and leaseback income and a pricing strategy that focuses on break-even rather than seat factors.

?IndiGo absolutely wants lower fares,? said Ghosh at a recent summit organised by CAPA India. ?But for that to happen, the government has to do something about the costs.?

?Market share is the easiest thing to get, but our target is to stimulate the market,? he added. ?The fares may look high, but one should not forget that in the last eight years the only thing that has become cheaper is airfares and telephone charges.?