AirAsia’s India market entry has recently created waves and lots of discussion about what this means for the future of the industry in India, specifically local airlines. I was interviewed by a leading business newspaper in India on this, and here are excerpts from that interview.
How do you think Air Asia permeates a market and wins it? Some interesting anecdotes?
When it comes to new market launches, AirAsia is one of the most innovative, not just in the region, but in the world. And I can say that confidently, having worked with a lot of airlines around the world. They don’t just have advertisements, but connect with the customers at a deeper level, having conversations about topics relevant to them, and yet creating a splash.
Take the recent Mumbai flights launch, for example. Not only was there pomp and show during the first flight, and even Bollywood was invited, at the same time, over the last couple of months, AirAsia built up a lot of interest about Mumbai and India through candid articles on its very popular blog, Planely Spoken, like “Mumbai in 3 days and 2 nights“. On the day of the launch, there was even a …
Why I had never flown Air India before…
I had never flown Air India till yesterday – intentionally. And I had my good reasons.
Last year, I booked my mom on a Singapore-Delhi Air India flight and the A310 was delayed by over 3 hrs, ensuring that she missed her onward connections. Moreover, a lot of friends who tried to save money had horror stories to tell. One of them once asked for water and the stewardess replied in Hindi, “This is not my lane. Ask the other woman”. That ensured that I never tried the Indian national carrier even though I had the opportunity to, multiple times. So I had really lowered my expectations.
Why I finally flew Air India – the new plane and the new partnership
This time I had the choice of flying from Toronto to Greece either on LOT Polish’s ageing B767 via Warsaw, or Air India to London and then Aegean to Athens. I went for the latter option, because I could fly the B777-300ER of Air India and then the brand new A321 of Aegean. Moreover, I could earn Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles on Air India due to their recent partnership. May be if CrankyFlier had …
I’m not suggesting Emirates should become the national carrier of India. I’m asserting that it is already the de-facto national airline of the sub-continent. And Indians need to tell their politicians to get over the rescue-Air-India-at-any-cost fever, save some tax rupees and let the market decide which airline survives and which doesn’t.
Game over, Air India
As I mentioned in a previous article, Air India contributes 10% of global airline losses with just 0.35% of global traffic (stat. from Bangalore Aviation). To rescue the airline, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ rupees are required over a long period of time. And even then, a profitable airline cannot be guaranteed, especially one that is mostly run for, and by the government and bureaucrats.
Even if you can gloss over the fact that lots of money is required to rescue Air India, the ideas for the turnaround that have been proposed till now have been far from convincing. Repositioning Air India as a low-cost carrier, with sky-high employee-to-plane ratio, aging fleet, poor plane utilization and lethargic execution, is at best an ill-conceived dream.
Till date, Air India has filled its planes either with politicians, or by selling dirt-cheap tickets that hardly cover …
