This year in the World Airline Awards, which was held on Tuesday 18th June 2019 in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace du Bourget at the Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways was awarded the worlds Best Airline; which fascinated me, as it was the first airlines that I traveled in. Airline leaders and top airline management from across the globe attended the event to receive their 2019 Awards. How well have some of the airlines upgraded themselves with amazing facilities, and world class luxuries even when LCCs (Low Cost Carriers) have become dominant players. Largest Airlines have always been in and from Americas, metrics has generally been based on either available seat miles or revenue, the top positions were shared by, American Airlines Group formed in December 9, 2013, by way of merger of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, and US Airways Group, the parent company of US Airways. American Airline was formed as the Air transport division of Aviation corporation, one of the oldest and earliest venturers. Southwest Airlines formed in 1967 also being the world largest low cost carrier; United Airlines, Inc. a founding member of the Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance with a total of 28 member airlines and Delta Air Lines who acquired North west airlines, of the “big four” US airlines - That title of being largest went from Delta to United to American to Soutwest, but remained with US, and why not?
Orville and Wilbur popularly known as The Wright brothers – were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. In 1903, their first successful flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina marked the beginning of the aviation industry. During the initial days the public thought it was too dangerous. Biggest factors in the growth of the air transportation industry were the development of a mail transport system by the U.S. Postal Service, it's use in the World war, and Charles Lindbergh successfully solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1928, a leading air transport company was created as a holding company by Boeing and its air transport division, United Aircraft and Transportation Corporation. But then it was the beginning of modern airplanes. Epics have flying fights, Ravana's Pushpak Viman, earlier the kites, were used not only for fun but also to test the weather, and for later development of balloons and gliders. The first hot air balloon by two French inventors were the first recorded flights. Today, the aviation industry is divided along three lines viz. Commercial, General and Military. It is grown from an estimated 9 million passengers to 1.5 billion passengers in 2001; and 4.1 billion passengers in 2007 in 41.9 million commercial scheduled flights, so this clearly excludes the charted flights. An organisation which helps by providing a stable air fare structure and smooth working of International airlines system is IATA (International Air Transport Association) headquartered in Montreal, Canada, founded in 1945; another equally important organisation from the same location called ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) ensures the safety of flying.
India being a strategic location was an important stop over for air-services and was one of the first countries to take to aviation, with first mail flight from Allahabad Exhibition ground to Naini Junction on 18th February 1911. J.R. D. Tata set up the country’s first airline in their aviation department way back in on 15th October 1932 called Tata Airlines; In 1952 civil aviation was nationalized but JRD remained its chairman of AI until 1978. Airlines of India operated Air India (AI) Internationally and Indian Airlines (IA) as domestic airlines. In 1982 Vayudoot emerged; finances jointly by AI and IA was introduced. In 1968 it was top airlines, now it is the world’s third most dangerous airlines. In 2004-14 some questionable decisions were made contributing to the destruction of AI. Ratan Tata when stepping down as the chairman in Dec. 2012 mentioned about ‘destructive competition’ here. Overseas, people go bankrupt or companies go bankrupt. Here they never do. They continue to be sick and still operate. Then they are operating to kill you. Finally Tata’s make reentry – as a minority partner in Air Asia in 2014 as well as in a joint venture with Singapore airlines they announce the launch of their airline named Vistara.
My Uncle was all excited to accompany his daughter to US, flight tickets were booked almost six month before for the 22nd of May, all arrangements done, though on 17 April 2019, Jet Airways temporarily suspended all flight operations indefinitely after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially bringing the curtains down on what was once India’s largest private airline; there were rays of hope. Unfortunately he could not travel; when it was expected that they have lost the ticket fair, Jet announced the return of customers money after months. A hard lesson learned late was booking with a credit card will allow you to get your money back if your travel company ceases operations, travel insurance, depending on the policy, will reimburse you if you need to pay for additional flights or hotels if you’re stranded. At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights had roughly around 16,000 employees, intense competition from low-cost carriers, like Interglobe-owned IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd, together with higher oil prices, hefty fuel taxes and a weak rupee piled pressure on the airline leaving behind a loss of more than ₹13,000 crore; total liabilities amounting to more than ₹15,000 crore. Lenders have been trying to sell the Jet as a going concern, but without much success and A consortium of 26 banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NMCLT) to recover dues worth more than ₹8,500 crore. Details of insolvency Proceedings are all published in their web site. Wondering what would be the reaction of Thakiyuddin Abdul Wahid (Taki) now?
Taki one of the 11 children of Mussaliar from Odayam in Trivandrum; Kerala with his elder brother Nasiruddin started business in 1980 East West Travel and Trade Links Private Limited. In 1989, under a new Open Sky Policy, the government began issuing air taxi licences for capacity building of Indian aviation sector. Countries first private flight operated on 28th Feb 1992. Jet airways took to sky in May 1993. By mid-1995 East West’s expansion plans were thwarted, insider information was gather by hook or crook, competition was heating up, rivals were poaching its staff. On 13 Nov 1995 Thakiyuddin Abdul Wahid, MD of East West Airlines; which was the first private airlines was shot. Mumbai police and Indian intelligence agency suspected that the airline was involved financially with Dawood Ibrahim, his name was the top target of Choota Rajan, Dawood’s rival don. Jet air led by Naresh Goyal was also a suspect. In June 1997; last flight of East West touched down in Mumbai. Fortunes of Jet Airways started to soar. With the suspected underwold links, hijacking on IC-814 from Katmandu to Kandahar in Afghanistan and the bizarre incident of arms drops in Purulia in West Bengal, one of the key question was which ministry should provide security clearance to air operators – Home affairs or civil aviation. Home affairs – it was decided, who put an end to intelligence inquiries into Jet Airways dubious funds and its promoter’s links to underworld. Goyal had friends in all the right places. They were denied permission to fly to US stating links with Al Qaede company. In January 2006 they took over Air Sahara. By 2009-10 many of the India’s cattle shed airports were overhauled and private businessmen entered the aviation business, reaping rich rewards. Today IndiGo and SpiceJet are key players, as of March 2019, there are 103 operational airports in India. As of July 2018, 620 airplanes were in-service in the fleet of scheduled Indian operators and is further expected to grow to 1,100 planes by 2027. The Government of India has launched regional connectivity scheme named UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) to make flying affordable for common man.
When Vijay Mallya entered the Air passenger transport business, there was rumors of Mr. Mukesh Ambani also trying to enter the air-travel business and he had shown an interest in acquiring the Air Deccan air-lines of Captain Gopinath. To preclude the possibility of Mukesh Ambani of acquiring the Air Deccan air-lines, Vijay Mallya acquired the Air Deccan air-lines without getting it properly evaluated. It appears Vijay Mallaya was sold a lemon. Vijay Mallya had hired his airlines staff, the Pilots, Air-hostesses, stewards, aircraft maintenance engineers, and other support staff at substantially higher salaries than the other airlines were paying. Giving full service, meals included, at economy rate fares, could not have been a successful business model. Business training of Vijay Mallya had been in liquor business, where profit margins are huge and account practices were not stringent. The same practice was carried over in the airlines business. Managers had authority to spend large sums of money. This model could sustain in liquor business where margins are huge but not in the cut-throat business of air-travel running on razor-thin margins, if not on out right loss. This sure was a recipe for failure and fail it did. But not before he running up loans of thousands of crores to the PSU banks.People bask in the glory of IPL, various teams sponsored, flights all operating in full swing, hunt for Kingfisher calender girls, while the employees are unpaid, their family members are even forced to commit suicide, ruthless business tactics, politically influential businessmen, politicians who are on the take, ambitious upstarts and shady players were highlights of the post economic liberalization era.
Overall, Airline Industry is fast growing, but not many players here are making profits. Failure is a means of learning, progressing and becoming more creative. Don’t deal with failure as it did not happen or blame someone else. That would be wasted opportunity. Take action to make a difference. Positive ones. At times people are prepared to go to a great extend to protect their ego at the expense of their own long-term success, this is called ‘self-handicapping’. Self-esteem can cause us to jeopardize learning if we think it might risk us looking anything less than perfect. What we really need is resilence, the capacity to face failure and to learn from it. Ultimately, that is what growth is all about.
Through seeking we learn and know things better. The first and most important issue is to create a revolution in the way we think about failure and growth. Hope this industry will generate job opportunity in the days to come and would be an economic booster.
(Three books viz. An Introduction To Travel And Tourism By Pran Nath Seth, Pran Nath Seth, Sushma Seth Bhat; Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed and A Feast of Vultures - Josy Joseph , discussions with innumerable people and data from net, helped me develop this article.)
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