In the public eye

For many in the media, IndiGo Airlines promoter Rahul Bhatia is like the Yeti.

Just as you can see the Yeti’s footprints, one can come across the handiwork of Bhatia—but you rarely sight the individual. Bhatia seldom steps into the limelight and prefers avoiding the media.

While this zeal for privacy did not prevent him from building one of India’s most successful airlines, it may serve not him as well when the company completes its initial public offer. After all, shareholders are very different from customers and employees. They demand quick returns and get jittery if there is any lag in communication.

IndiGo filed a draft prospectus in June with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise ₹3,000 crore through the IPO. Bhatia declined to talk to BusinessLine for this story.

Bhatia along with Rakesh Gangwal built the airline from scratch to make it one of the most successful private airlines in the country. IndiGo which started with one plane in 2006 has a fleet of 96 today operating over 600 daily domestic flights connecting 38 Indian cities.

The airline started international operations in September 2011 and currently flies to five cities abroad.

Thus far, the airline has been a closely held company but once listed on the stock exchange, all decisions — be it ordering aircraft or buying engines — will have to be made public.  Further, every small aspect such as an engine failure or a postponement in delivery of aircraft will now be under intense scrutiny. This is going to be the first major change that Bhatia and his team will have to get used to.

But that’s just the start. “After it lists, then no one individual will be able to influence the decisions of the company,” says the Director of Finance at a competing airline who did not want to be identified. “The board and independent directors will scrutinise everything. Right now no one knows when Rahul (Bhatia) sells or buys shares or who he gives them to.”

There might be some merit in what he says as it was only after the airline filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for the IPO that many came to know the shareholding pattern of IndiGo. Also, few were aware of the litigations pending against Bhatia.

The decision to go public also got the thumbs down from at least one financial analyst who maintains that he will personally not invest in the IndiGo IPO. He explains that a retail investor will look at a high rate of return which the company may not be in a position to deliver. “I fear that the airline’s public image and exposure may be affected after it has listed,” he says.

 Others see the listing as a first step towards Bhatia getting ready to sell his stake in IndiGo. Being the shrewd businessman that he is, Bhatia has probably figured out his next move. Even when he ventured into the field, it was something that many expected him to do – his father was General Sales Agent for various airlines.  Bhatia’s schoolmates remember that in the 1980s he was the guy to go to for booking air tickets during holidays. “He had a travel agency on Janpath and got it done easily,” recalls a senior in school.

 Old friends say that though his family was in the business, IndiGo is totally Bhatia’s baby. But what he got from his family is perhaps the sense of professionalism, says Kapil Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “Rahul Bhatia’s businesses prior to Indigo were professionally run and with strong empowerment to his top leadership team,” he says. “He has grown InterGlobe, even without Indigo, into a successful travel and technology group. However, Indigo’s success has been outstanding.”

Other old timers agree that Bhatia is one of the few promoters to give considerable freedom to those working with him. “A good example of his leadership quality is the fact that the attrition rate in IndiGo is the lowest in the industry. Even those who have left the airline for one reason or another swear by it,” says a former employee.   

Many ex-employees say that much of IndiGo’s success is the result of focus on small details. A fact not lost on even the experts. “Having taken 50 to 60 flights on IndiGo in the last five years, I am amazed at the seamless service starting from check-in to in-flight service to baggage delivery,” says an aviation veteran with over 30 years of experience in Indian and foreign airlines operating in India.

An eye for detail is also what struck Sanjay Aggarwal, former Chief Executive Officer of SpiceJet and Kingfisher. “I met Rahul (Bhatia) in 2008 at a hotel in Gurgaon.  While he kept looking and talking to me, his hands were busy arranging the sugar sachets according to size and putting together all the white and brown sugar sachets together.”

IndiGo staffers swear by Bhatia’s simplicity and the fact that he truly treats a customer as king. They say that Bhatia takes a passenger complaint more seriously than any praise that the airline gets.

While IndiGo is the more well known company that Rahul has promoted, very few know that he has other interests too — like running L’Angoor, a barbecue restaurant in Gurgaon.

He also has a franchise for the Accor hotel chain in India. But not everything Bhatia touches turns to gold.

He set up ESTB, a company which was to sell luxury products to Indians and another to look for advertising opportunities. While these may be unknown, IndiGo becoming a publicly listed company surely will get Bhatia in the limelight.

How well he handles all the attention is something that many are waiting to see.

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