IndiGo may be a low-cost airline, but its president tells Vishakha Talreja and Shailesh Dobhal that the company takes great pains to get the smallest detail right
The office of the low-cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo is located in a swanky building in Gurgaon and, as we wait for the company president Aditya Ghosh at its office, everything screams ?low cost??the rickety reception desk, old water bottles in the conference room and crammed office space. However, as soon as Ghosh enters the scene, everything sort of transforms. It?s as if his energy is contagious. He quickly leads us to the restaurant located on the ground floor of the building, declining the elevator and climbing down the steps in a jiffy instead. En route, he gives us a quick tour of the office canteen, which is colourful and lively, unlike the dull office. Through Ghosh?s eyes, we start looking beyond low cost …
The restaurant offers fine dining, but has a quirky name, L?Angoor, complete with a logo depicting two monkeys.
?It?s actually a wine bar, so it?s called L…angoor. Angoor meaning grapes,? Ghosh explains. A lawyer by profession, Ghosh, who has just turned 36, heads the airline of the InterGlobe Group and has been with the airline since its inception. In his words, there have been three important phases in the life of IndiGo, and he has seen them all. ?First was the pre-launch phase in 2005, when we ordered 100 Airbus aircraft. We spent almost a year just planning the airline and finally launched in August 2006. The second phase was when we broke even in 2008-09. That?s also when the slowdown set in. And now is the third phase, when we will be going international in September,? he summarises.
After spending almost seven years at J Sagar Associates as a lawyer, Ghosh joined InterGlobe as general counsel. He was appointed president of the airline in 2008, succeeding expat CEO Bruce Ashby. We are curious to know, just why was a young lawyer chosen to head the no-frills carrier and given the line responsibility? ?That was the shareholders? fault, I guess,? Ghosh chuckles. Though, of course, founders of the airline, Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal, would answer that better. Ghosh adds on a serious note, ?I guess because I have been with the airline from scratch, right from when we applied for the licence. Plus, both Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal had immense faith in me, even though I wasn?t too sure.? He was made the president of InterGlobe?s airline when the owners wanted to move from an expat management to a more Indian one.
In the past five years, IndiGo has cornered 19.6% share of the domestic pie, pipping rivals such as SpiceJet, and it also claims to have made a profit after tax of R550 crore on sales of R2,664 crore for the fiscal 2009-10. ?We have always swum against the tide. We went ahead and ordered planes when everyone was talking about overcapacity; we have never retrenched any of our employees and gave them increments even during the slowdown,? he says. For the June quarter, Ghosh says his airline is profitable, unlike its peers, which are posting losses.
It?s post-lunch time?too early to uncork wine?so he orders a double shot of espresso and we settle for cappuccinos, while Ghosh tells us how he has learnt from the parent group that it?s in details that the mantra of success lies. ?Our planes are spotlessly clean. We also run an academy, ?I Fly?, where employees from various departments are all trained under one roof, giving them an opportunity to interact with each other. We have also recently started a holiday Website, branded ?Get Packing?, which has real-time inventory; we are obsessed with details.?
Yes, the details, so even when the market is still abuzz with IndiGo?s historic order of 180 Airbus planes that it made early this year at the Paris Air Show, Ghosh tells us that it?s not only planes, they ordered engines too, and have the maintenance contract in place as well.
Back in college, studying history at the Kirori Mal College, or while studying law at the Delhi University, Ghosh, of course, didn?t think he would one day be making headlines for buying planes.
IndiGo completes five years of operations in August and will launch international flights to Dubai on September 1, Bangkok on September 8 and Singapore on September 15. We ask Ghosh the obvious, that how the airline plans to stand the stiff competition that rival international LCCs like Air Asia and Air Arabia pose, and which have a stronger international network. ?We offer not just low fares, but consistently low fares. But that?s not all. We are targeting first-time flyers and blue collar workers. So if we offer them Hindi-speaking cabin crew and just the kind of food they want, they will be more comfortable. We want to take that fear out of flying,? he justifies. And talking about food, Ghosh tells us that there are people who buy food on-board their domestic flights and take it home. ?We have various caterers, but our recipes are proprietary.?
When asked if the company is looking at an IPO, Ghosh denies it flatly. ?No, we clearly are not looking at going public or any kind of stake sale.? He clarifies that the rumour took wings at the Hyderabad Air Show last year in March, ?a figment of someone?s imagination?, and hasn?t died yet.
Just like IndiGo?s hoardings, Ghosh lays emphasis on the airline?s on-time performance (OTP)?one of the highest in the industry?and clearly a differentiator. He underlines that OTP is calculated electronically and not manually, so there is no room for fudging numbers. IndiGo has a fleet of 42 aircraft, and is looking at upping that number to 48 by the end of this year and touching 60 by the end of next year. This ever-expanding airline, which has about 4,000 employees on its rolls, is also quite gung-ho about training and recruitment processes. Besides its I Fly Institute, a DGCA-approved facility,
it has initiated the Cadet Pilot Programme, where selected graduates are trained to become pilots and paid stipend, too. Ghosh takes pride in the fact that it?s the first airline in India to do so, following the footprint of global biggies like Singapore Airlines. It has a tie-up with CAE Academy for pilot training. ?All these steps are proof that we take a long-term view of things. Not only will this help us cut costs, but also help us grow our own timber.?
On a serious note, he refers to incidences of fake pilots, saying, ?Airlines have been too busy complaining about high fuel prices, and airline CEOs have a birthright to complain about it, but there are bigger issues that the industry faces.? But soon, he?s back to narrating customer feedback stories, some of which beat restaurant names in the quirkiness quotient.