Simply Fly

by Capt G R Gopinath

  HAL said they would undertake our ground-handling and asked for Rs 30,000 per ATR. This would amount to an additional burden of Rs 1000 per passenger on a forty-eight-seater aircraft. Jet Airways was doing its own ground handling and I wanted to do the same. I had endless rounds of meetings and HAL proved to be one of the worst government departments in terms of bureaucratic red tape.

  Furious, I rushed to Delhi to meet defence minister George Fernandes who I had come to know quite well by then and who had already agreed to inaugurate the launch. I said I had hit a stone wall with HAL. He immediately called the chairman of HAL, and said, ‘This is an ex-army officer. I want you to go out of your way to ensure that he gets parking space, facilities to maintain his aircraft, and gets to do his own ground-handling. You should be welcoming him rather than adopting a hostile attitude.’ For safety’s sake I asked George Fernandes whether I could come back to him if things didn’t work out. He said, with a twinkle in his eyes, ‘I did not request him. I gave him orders.’ The call had the desired effect because I got some twenty calls from the HAL chairman’s office before reaching Bengaluru.

  Our marketing department had innovated something new to add to the revenue channels. It struck a deal with Sun Microsystems to paint the exterior of the aircraft with their brand logo at a charge of Rs 20 lakh a month. It was a big coup as the amount came in handy to cover 50 per cent of my monthly lease rental on the aircraft. We had the aircraft exterior painted by Sun Microsystems, but when the marketing team went to the DGCA, the agency didn’t approve this. I was not sure what the reason was, so we searched the archives and found the relevant rules governing external branding displays on aircraft. The Aircraft Rule 1937 said: ‘No aircraft can be painted with any form of advertisement or slogan except the registration of the aircraft unless specifically permitted by the DGCA.’

  The DGCA was headed by Satyender Singh. He was a good man but like all good bureaucrats he went by the book. I met him and said I needed permission for external branding. He was very quick to say ‘No’; and that aircraft rules didn’t permit it. Having read the rules I said I could perhaps do it with his permission. I handed him a letter. He asked his staff to find out why airlines were not permitted to carry advertisements. One of them said it was for reasons of safety. I said that as aircraft had their names painted on them, safety could have nothing to do with it. My engineers had told me that so long as the aircraft was painted in the colours and paint approved by the manufacturer and the paint did not peel off and enter the engine, there was no safety concern. I told the DGCA we would use paint recommended by the manufacturer and not use vinyl because vinyl tended to peel off at alternating high and low temperatures.

  I also said low-cost airlines around the world painted their aircraft with brand names and made money and reduced fares. Satyender Singh, known to be a stickler for rules, was now in a tight corner, believing that if a rule had been imposed since 1937 there must, as with the scriptures, be a reason for it. He needed to be personally convinced, and till he was, he would not allow the aircraft to be painted. I brought this up when I went to meet Rudy. I said we had lucrative contracts from Sun Microsystems and NDTV but were being denied permission from the DGCA. The minister called up Satyender Singh and requested him to either clear the file or send it to him for approval. Satyender Singh dutifully sent the file across to the minister.

  Readying for the Bengaluru–Hubli Launch Flight

  The run-up to the launch was by no means easy. The same kind of problems kept arising till the last minute. Somewhat akin to what had preceded the launch of the helicopter operations. Initially, there were people in competition who did not relish our capturing the imagination of the country and winning the support of political leaders and bureaucrats. These cloak and dagger adversaries had MPs writing to the ministry of civil aviation, raising safety issues. One misinformed politician acting on behalf of an established airlines wrote that a low-cost airline would not have the resources to spend on the maintenance of aircraft. Our preparation in this direction was thorough. We had cast-iron answers to these feeble doubts about operational safety.

  What was of greater concern to us was that we did not have trained Indian pilot captains to fly ATR aircraft and had to hire them from abroad. We had submitted a list of fifty names of foreign pilots to the Home Ministry and they would have to be screened by several agencies including the CBI, the police, the drug enforcement agency, the RAW, and the civil aviation ministry before approval.

  The launch of Deccan was less than two years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York. Security and intelligence agencies were naturally very wary about permissions to foreign pilots. I was cautious not to push too hard for permissions. Terrorists had earlier only hijacked aircraft and jeopardized the lives of passengers and crew but now they had begun to convert aircraft into missiles and had the capability to wreak destruction in the air and on the ground on a hitherto unimaginable scale.

  It was not Rudy’s turf and he rightly washed his hands off it. I used contacts in the defence and my point man, Col. D.V. Singh, single-handedly combed through the maze of sensitive ministries and agencies and was eventually able to obtain the requisite clearances. I suggested that while the agencies must take their own time about screening an applicant if they had even the slightest cause for suspicion, they should clear those with unblemished reputations. That would allow me to commence operations.

  Just two days before the launch, the director general of air-worthiness, P. K. Chattopadhyay, a very good friend of mine and one of the most positive people I have known, called me. He was calling about our decision to have one air-hostess aboard a forty-eight-seater ATR. He said he did not want us to be grounded for flouting rules about the minimum number of cabin crew for each aircraft. The rules however stated that an aircraft must have one cabin crew for every fifty passengers and we had forty-eight seats so I felt we would certainly not be flouting them by having one air-hostess on the aircraft.

  I rechecked after the DGCA’s call. One of my team members said, ‘Sir, the plane needs one air-hostess for fifty passengers. Another said, ‘No, Captain, it’s not about the number of passengers but about the number of exits in the aircraft. You must have one cabin crew to manage each exit.’

  No-one had actually seen the rule book; just consulted the local DGCA official, and each had his own version of the rule. It was now necessary to see with our own eyes what the book said, which was that an aircraft must have one cabin crew for every fifty passengers. That settled the matter. This was a lesson I had learnt early in life. When people say it cannot be done, don’t accept it easily but get into the habit of checking the rule book yourself.

  Our next task was to get Hubli airport approved for commercial operations. Hubli airport did not have procedures for landing and therefore our chief pilot would not be able to undertake a trial landing. We needed to secure documents from the department of meteorology which was under the wings of the ministry of science and technology. The ATC and the meteorological representative had not yet been posted there, and without either we would not be able fly. The tarmac was not ready and baggage x-ray machines had not yet been installed.

  Airport security is provided by BCAS which falls under the home ministry. The home ministry posts people to AAI on the basis of a requisition letter from that agency. These people look after various security positions. The AAI collects a passenger service fee through the airline, keeps a percentage of that fee and remits the balance to the home ministry.

  It was the AAI’s turn now to take us by surprise. The authority said I should get police and fire services support from the state government. The police commissioner in Hubli wanted to help but he needed to know who would pay for the services of police personnel. I told him the AAI would. He wanted a letter from the AAI to that effect, which the latter was reluctant to issue.

  This problem was solved after I met the state home minister, Mallikarjun Kharge. I explained that the AAI was supposed to pay for po
lice services from the passenger fee they charged for the service. It was simply a question of time and they would certainly pay, but waiting for a letter from them would unnecessarily hold up the launch. Kharge called the police commissioner and asked him to provide state police for airport duty within the venue, outside, and at security clearance posts.

  At each step I had to innovate a solution for the ministry or the bureaucracy to act on without violating regulations. The goodwill I had succeeded in generating for the people’s airline helped a great deal. The state government developed a sense of identity with the new airline. The first flight from Bengaluru to Hubli would make it appear that the airline was born in Karnataka. Hubli as choice for the inaugural flight sent out a message about the kind of people we were hoping to target. It was against this background that the drama about the police security for the airport took place. I liaised with the state government, the AAI, and the police department. The state government positioned its police at the airport security points and the problem seemed to have disappeared for good when I received a rude shock from another source, the BCAS this time. In a drama, the characters want to enact particular roles. Sometimes those enacting the lesser parts felt ignored and tried their best to be seen and heard on stage. It was now for the BCAS to demand more action and more dialogue in the play. The agency said we needed a certificate from the state government certifying that at least some of the police personnel being deployed for airport security were trained in anti-terrorism tactics.

  The policemen and policewomen posted at Hubli airport were not trained to handle terrorism, not having undergone the three-day course the central government conducted for state police officers. We only had two days left, certainly quite inadequate for the course to be arranged. I asked my security chief P.N. Thimmaiah to follow-up with the police. The DGP moved heaven and earth to identify and deploy policemen who had undergone anti-terrorism training but the BCAS wanted a letter from the state government certifying that. I received that letter and alerted my own team and staff to scrupulously adhere to anti-terrorism measures. I instructed them to check every bag and every component till everyone and everything had been screened and found safe.

  The ATR aircraft took off from Toulouse five days ahead of the launch after overcoming some minor hitches about export certificate of airworthiness and import permission. The pilots we had deputed returned after training and received DGCA endorsement. We were the first airline to be using a large number of foreign pilots to fly in India. The DGCA wanted to conduct tests because there had been an accident long ago due to a misunderstanding between the pilot and the ATC and had caused the DGCA to become very strict about it. The pilots took an oral exam in English communication and Indian aerospace rules.

  The state government was very helpful. It did not give us any subsidy but passed a rule enabling officials of lower rank to fly on duty. Only IAS officers had so far been allowed air travel; not assistant commissioners and tahsildars. S.M. Krishna passed gazette notifications putting this rule into effect on the eve of the launch. It was of direct benefit to us, enabling us to count on official patronage too.

  Most vitally, IT had fallen into place. The software and networking had been implemented, and eight days before the launch, user-testing on the software was undertaken. We opened the booking counter online and launched teaser campaigns to support the bookings. The operations were on a massive scale and many things had to rapidly come together: the call centre, the bank, the anywhere-in-the-world travel agent, the communication service provider Airtel, and VPN and LAN service provider HCL-Infosys had to be integrated and made to work as a seamless web. Call centre operations continued to be given primary focus, and we recruited fifty people for the operations.

  Our agency, Orchard Advertising, gave us a great advertising profile. The agency created the logo and tag line for the company, punning on the word ‘Simplifly’. It implied that we were here to ease out and simplify air travel for everybody, who could now fly with Deccan without any concern. We chose blue and yellow as the official colours. Two upturned palms with fingers stretched up symbolizing dynamic lift and personal care was our logo. The two upturned palms were mutually positioned to symbolize a pair of wings. The aircraft was decked out in this manner.

  On 22 September we had an evening concert at Jakkur. There was an audio-visual show on the airline, focusing on how it would change the economy of different regions of the country, create new jobs, bring the country closer, and transform the lives of millions. Dr L. Subramaniam gave an absolutely mesmerizing concert. The governor and the chief minister of Karnataka were special invitees to the programme. The first flight was scheduled for the next day at 10 a.m.

  There is something last-minute about the last minute hitch. You cannot unravel it until the last minute. We still did not have the Air Transport Licence to operate the flight at 9.30 in the morning on the inaugural day. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, S. M. Krishna, George Fernandes, and Venkaiah Naidu were already at the venue when I received a message that the licence had not arrived.

  We had been in total compliance and I knew it would come, but it was a cliffhanger. As in the case of the helicopter launch, the licence came barely twenty minutes before the flight. I had a back-up plan: I would do a onetime ferry flight to Hubli! But thankfully I did not need to resort to it.

  The flight was flagged off by S. M. Krishna. For this we had two aircrafts ready. One took off for Hubli carrying the media and the passengers, the other flew to Mangalore with George Fernandes on board. As the flight took off the audience rose in applause. That single flight to Hubli, the rural dusty town in the middle of Karnataka, marked a historic moment that changed Indian aviation forever.

  Beginning with the day of the launch, our flights had attracted a lot of attention. We flew the Mangalore–Bengaluru, Bengaluru–Chennai, and Bengaluru–Hyderabad routes at near 100 per cent occupancy. The planes were filling and the IT system ran perfectly. Our two aircrafts did ten flights a day each, and that was optimum asset utilization. People were booking tickets from everywhere in India and from around the world.

  Two days later I was in for another rude shock when I received a call at 5 a.m. The local DGCA had turned up at the airport and stopped us from taking off with the Sun Microsystems logo and branding. He said he had still not received the letter from Delhi, allowing us to paint the Sun advertisement. It did not matter to him that the civil aviation minister had himself inaugurated the aircraft with the branding only two days earlier.

  What happened was that Satyendra Singh had sent the file to the ministry for sanction. It had taken quite some time for the file to reach the minister’s office and travel back down the line to Bengaluru. I was woken up at 5 a.m. by my people. I rushed to the airport and tried to reason with the DGCA official. He, however, did not budge because he had not received the letter. I was reminded of the story by A.G. Gardiner about the conductor and the lady with the dog, who forgot that rules were meant only for the comfort of customers. On a late wintry night in London, when there was a blizzard and it was biting cold, he kept driving a very, very old lady passenger, to the roof of the bus, even though she was the only passenger on the bus. He said, ‘Mam, rules are rules. Dogs are not allowed in lower deck.’ And nearly drove the old lady to death by freezing. We had no alternative but to camouflage the branding with water-based paint.

  John Kuruvilla, who headed our ad agency Orchard, had quit and set up a property business on the Internet during the heady dotcom days. The bubble burst and the company folded up. He came over to our airline and I readily took him on as our marketing head. I really believe that most of the innovations that were made in the airline were authored by John. John showed great commitment and brought in loads of energy. He had a young team of innovative thinkers, one of whom had hit upon an idea that we should sell tickets through Reliance Web-world kiosks.

  This solved a very tricky issue of refunds. How do you refund a passenger who bought a ticket from a travel agent in Delhi a
nd cancelled it in Bengaluru? Our rules stated that the passenger had to go back to the travel agent from whom s/he had bought the ticket. The travel agent might have given the passenger credit, so if we paid out the refund in Bengaluru, the agent would be out of change. Our policy was to enable refund to the point of sale.

  John suggested that we sell tickets at Reliance Internet cafes across the country, some 300 of which had just opened in large and small towns. Reliance was looking for additional sources of revenue, and received 5 per cent commission on the sale of a ticket just like any other travel agent. Selling our tickets would bring in one extra channel, and provide us with a national presence and free branding across their outlets.

  John’s team continued to be creative. They came up with the idea that we could sell tickets at petrol stations. We signed up with Hindustan Petroleum, asking them to offer tickets at 1000 petrol stations in different parts of the country. Petrol stations, unlike travel agents, work 24 hours a day and seven days of the week. These truly served as any-time ticketing points and John’s initiative worked.

  We took the innovation forward by introducing Internet-enabled mobile van ticketing, which worked on Internet-enabled mobile phone connectivity, and this created quite a buzz. The reservation system allowed access to these nodes anywhere in the country. The van moved about town making e-ticketing extremely easy and convenient, and also served as a mobile hoarding for the Deccan brand.

  This idea succeeded at some places and failed at others, but it did create customer awareness about Deccan. John was adding agents every second day and we were in a position to scale up within the first fifty days. I realized that lack of imagination was perhaps the only limiting factor in any new enterprise or experiment.