'We offer more choices than a full-service carrier'

AirAsia India calls itself a three-year-old ‘startup’ airline. But this young carrier has grown in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, stating, ‘Now everyone can fly’, thanks to its deep connectivity. With plans to fly international next year, the airline’s MD and CEO Amar Abrol explains to Hrithik Kiran Bagade of DH about its quick ascent to such heights in the competitive Indian airline market. Edited excerpts:

What’s the latest at AirAsia India?
In our first year of operations (2014-15), we carried five lakh passengers, with just three planes. Fast forward to now, and since last year’s April, we’ve tasted new-found growth.

From six planes last year, we have 12 as we speak. The 13th plane is going into operation from the coming month, while the 14th plane comes in December. We eye 21 aircraft by late next year. All our aircraft are leased A320-200s. AirAsia India is the fourth fastest growing airline in the world in terms of capacity addition. All this is happening since last April, when the new management team came into being.

Why specifically the A320-200? What about looking at the A320neo (New Engine Option)?
The A320-200 is the model that we’ve been flying. The average vintage of our aircraft is around six years, which is sort of the right price for a young airline like us. There’s a reason why we have six-year-old planes, as it’s the optimal lease cost when it comes to a plane. Our first objective is to be profitable, and then we’ll look at new aircraft, whether it’s the neo or any other extended capacity planes from the Airbus A320 Family.

You specifically mentioned April 2016. Until then, was it largely consolidation?
The ex-CEO (Mittu Chandilya) left in March last year, and I came on board in April. Obviously, there was a little bit of a hiatus for six months, when things had slowed down a bit. After I stepped in, and a few others joined me, we worked together to consolidate the company. Since then, we’ve been on a growth path. In April 2016, we were somewhere around 650 people in the company, today we are 1,500 people. The number of stations has gone up from eight to 16. By the end of FY 2017-18, we’ll be a Rs 1,800-crore company, from the current Rs 1,000 cr, on the back of capacity, destinations, planes, load factor, and increased frequencies. Our market share is 3.7%, with an average load factor of 88%.   

With the government talking ‘UDAN’, what’s your perspective?
We’ve been doing ‘UDAN’. A large chunk of our destinations include Tier-II and smaller cities, apart from metros. That’s where the growth and opportunity are. For instance, if you look at the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, there are 60 flights daily, with hardly any slots available at either destination. On the other hand, there is a population of 330 million who can afford to fly, out of which only about 75 million actually do fly. Hence, there is huge opportunity mainly in the Tier-II and Tier-III markets. Based on our own studies, among all of our guests, 20% of them are first-time flyers ever, and 40% of them are first-time flyers on AirAsia. Basically, we’re creating demand. People appreciate our product, which offers leather seats, delectable meal options, superior service and so on. Our fees for baggage, processing and cancellation are the lowest.

Which are your biggest circuits?
We are dominant in Goa, where we have 11 landings daily. We are fairly big in Kochi and Guwahati. As a group, we have five landings daily in Jaipur. Bengaluru is our hub, where we have the maximum number of aircraft, while Delhi and Kolkata are bases too.

Considering that the market leader is a low-cost player, do you feel that low-cost carriers can vie for the top position?
Well, that’s the model which works. Think about it, we offer more food choices than a full-service. We have 14 menus that we offer to guests, with lounge access and priority boarding, front of seats, lower prices and charges.

That’s where affordability rests. But there is opportunity for all to grow.

What are the challenges in the market currently?
There are infrastructure, saturation and congestion constraints. But people are willing to pay and fly. The differentiator is in the product, pricing, destinations, OTP performance and service.

Can guests use the wider AirAsia network through your service?
Absolutely! Three months ago, we introduced something called ‘Fly-Thru’, which allows passengers flying on AirAsia India domestically, to use the same PNR number and connect to Malaysia, and then onward to Australia and so on, with everything being taken care of.

It’s opening a new segment for us. We’ve also relaunched our group loyalty programme ‘AirAsia BIG’, which makes us the only low cost carrier in the country to have such a loyalty programme.