The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan on revamp mode

Restructuring exercise
Engineering department of the airline has been fully overhauled to reduce the number of cancellations of flights.
Utilisation of aircraft over the last four-five months has increased by over 20 per cent.
The airline is also studying the possibility of waiving off fuel surcharge for passengers.

Bangalore , June 7

Air Deccan has embarked on a restructuring exercise as it readies itself to handle nearly eight million passengers before the end of this fiscal.

Since its inception nearly three years ago, the low-cost airline has flown over four million passengers. By the end of this fiscal, the airline plans to double the number of passengers it has handled so far. The airline has identified key areas, which needs improvement and has overhauled them and has started inducting professionals from international airlines to man important positions in the technical as well as operations' departments.

"We have basically unturned every stone in our bid to increase efficiency of the airline," the Air Deccan's chief operating officer, Mr Warwick Brady, told Business Line.

He said the engineering department of the airline has been fully overhauled to reduce the number of cancellations of flights and also to increase the turnaround of the aircraft. "We are in the process of building a strong technical team which can handle greater loads far more efficiently," he said. He said the utilisation of aircraft over the last four-five months has increased by over 20 per cent. It has also started replacing its handling agents in major airports to increase the efficiency at the ground level.

To hire more pilots

The airline is also studying the possibility of waiving off fuel surcharge for passengers. It plans to hire 100 more pilots during this year alone, which will increase the number of pilots to around 450. The airline has a fleet of 35 aircraft, which will go up to 45 by the end of this fiscal.

Mr Brady said the airline is also working on improving the completion rate of flights (completion of one round trip), which is currently at 97 per cent to around 99 per cent. "One of the reasons for our completion rate being at 97 per cent is because we fly to airports which don't even have basic infrastructure," Mr Brady said.

The airline aims to increase revenues from co-branding efforts as well as sponsorships to 15-20 per cent from the current level of 9 per cent in another couple of years.

Mr Brady said the airline is currently operating under extremely hostile environment because of lack of good infrastructure at airports and steep airport charges. However, the airline has been able to peg down its average seat per km to around Rs 2.45. The airline employs 67 employees per aircraft compared with an industry average of over 200.

More Stories on : Airlines | Restructuring

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
PM's Task Force to discuss Chennai, Kolkata airports modernisation today

Air Deccan on revamp mode

South African Airways to use IBS travel tool

Nilgiri Railway stretches may go private

Rlys plans to move towards e-procurement

`Freight hike will not be uniform on all routes'

APSRTC not to hike fares