Airlines Deals

Kale Consultants announced its 4th quarter results where they reported net profit at Rs 1.68 crore against Rs 4.08 crore in the previous quarter. Its income stands at Rs 17 crore vs Rs 17.9 crore, QoQ.

Vipul Jain, MD at Kale Consultants says on a YoY, revenue has grown 31%.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Vipul Jain:

Q: If you could first take us through the numbers?

A: In Q1 our revenue grew 31% and our profit after tax grew by 270%.

Q: On a QoQ basis the revenue has been quite flat?

A: Well Q4 for us every year is a quarter, which is where we have larger volumes from our customers and some of our pricing is actually based upon volumes, Q4 is a much higher quarter than any of the quarters. Yes, compared to Q3, the revenue is a little lower but the reference of comparison would actually be the same quarter last year.

Q: How much volume growth have you seen on a YoY basis?

A: On a YoY, our operating revenue has grown 31% and that is the trend, which I think we are likely to continue to see in the rest of the year.

Q: What has been the client addition for the quarter and also what is the average wallet size of your clients?

A: We have added four new customer contracts during this quarter. During this quarter one of the significant customers that we signed was bmi British Midland for revenue accounting services, Indian Airlines where we had signed for a cargo solution, has also gone live, which I think is a very important milestone. In terms of the contract sizes they vary from service or product that we are delivering. But the bmi order is estimated to be about £8 million over five years

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For the high flyers from Air India and Indian Airlines, 26/7 was a mammoth disaster.

Not only were the employees staying in these two colonies completely grounded after the airport wall collapsed, their homes and lives were flooded and it took more than a week to get things back to normal.

Each time it rains, the low-lying areas, the usual suspects, go under water. The Kalina area near the airport is no exception and even during a regular monsoon is not new to flooding.

But nothing could have prepared the residents here for last year’s rain terror. There was 944 cm of rain in just a day and from noon the Kalina area had started showing signs of flooding.

Central to the drama were the airport colonies of Indian Airlines and Air India, home to the employees working with the national carrier.

Nature’s fury

Starting from about a foot high, water quickly rose to six feet by evening. Residents on the ground floor hardly got any time to pack their belongings.

Before they knew it, water had flooded their homes destroying everything in its way, from files and papers to furniture and mattresses.

And just as people thought things couldn’t get any worse the airport wall near the colony collapsed and the water came gushing in.

The rainwater had completely submerged the ground floor and was already threatening to drown the first. Taken completely by surprise many lost their lives in the struggle to stay afloat.

In spite of being in the city, Kalina was completely cut off. Phone lines went dead, electricity was out and there was no food, no water and no signs of any help or rescue.

Caught in the midst of an incessant downpour, a raging Mithi river, an illegal airport extension and government apathy, even today, this low lying area serves as a constant reminder of the extent of human losses that Mumbai suffered in last year’s floods.

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A low-cost Thai airline, the Air Asia, will launch flight services between Bangkok and Yangon of Myanmar in mid-August, according to local media reports Monday.

With a promotional ticket fare of 25 U.S. dollars one way, exclusive of surcharge and airport tax for the flights until March 24, 2007, the Air Asia will operate daily flights beginning Aug. 16 and using 148-seat Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

The flights enable Myanmar people to travel to Thailand at an affordable price, the airline officials were quoted as saying.

The Air Asia’s flight service will bring the number of foreign airlines flying Yangon to 14, statistics show.

The airline is currently flying some major cities of Thailand as well as some regional destinations such as Singapore, Macao, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, the reports said.

At present, the Yangon-Bangkok air service is run by three airlines — the Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways and Myanmar Airways International.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and South Korea will also establish direct air link beginning October this year with the state-run Myanmar Airways to fly between Yangon and Seoul, according to air industry sources.

Other foreign airlines that link Yangon includes Air China, Malaysian Airlines, Silk Air, Biman (Bangladesh), Indian Airlines, Lauda Air (Austria), Phuket Airlines (Thailand) and Qatar Airways (Middle-East)

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The Indian Airlines has restored freight subsidy for carriage of perishables especially Kashmiri cut-flowers on Srinagar-Delhi Sector.
After persuasion of the state government, the Executive Director Cargo, Indian Airlines, New Delhi has ordered that special commodity rates of Rs. 15.35 per/kg of cut-flowers shall be applicable with immediate effect, an official statement said.
The 50 per cent air freight subsidy to cut-flowers and other perishables was withdrawn on June 18, 2006 and the matter was taken up by the Minister for Agriculture Abdul Aziz Zargar with the Union Civil Aviation Minister. Besides, the cut-flower growers of the valley had also sought intervention from the Union Minister for Water Resources, Saif-ud-Din Soz who also took up the matter with the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Kumar. It was after strong persuasion of the Ministers that Praful issued immediate instructions for restoration of freight subsidy for the world famous Kashmiri cut-flowers and other perishable fruits and vegetable varieties.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister has conveyed his thanks to the Union Civil Aviation Minister for restoring freight subsidy for Kashmir cut-flowers and perishable fruit varieties.

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India’s first low cost airline Air Deccan today claimed to have surpassed state-owned Indian airlines to become the country’s number two airlines with a market share of 21.2 per cent, as of June end this year.

“Air Deccan has garnered a market share of 21.2 per cent in June, a rise of 1.8 per cent since May 2005, while the market of Indian dipped to 20.8 per cent in the month of June,” a company release claimed here today.

“Air Deccan with its unconventional business model brought the luxury of flying to the common man in India. Dynamic pricing coupled with wide connectivity, rapid expansion of fleet and several other steps enabled us in becoming the second airline in the country within such a short span of time,” its Managing Director Capt G R Gopinath said in the statement.

Air Deccan, which started operations in August 2003, has seen a very rapid growth having flown over 5.8 million passengers since inception.

Gopinath said that the rise of Air Deccan was an indicative that the country had an appetite for low cost airlines. “If we go by the current rate of growth we are witnessing, it won’t be long before we become the largest people carrier with the largest fleet offering the largest connectivity and the lowest fares,” he said.

Operating to 55 destinations across the country with a fleet of 14 Airbus A-320 and 21 turbo propelled aircraft, Air Deccan very recently placed an order for 96 new planes, which will be delivered over a period of 96 months

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Naresh Goyal, founder and chairman of Jet Airways. Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

Naresh Goyal has the kind of house that makes you stop and gawp and wonder who could possibly live there - an elegant white stucco-fronted townhouse in a secluded road with sweeping views across Regent’s Park.
Goyal, 57, is one of India’s super-rich, a generation of businessmen redefining the world’s largest democracy. The Sunday Times this year ranked him as the sixth richest Asian living in Britain, estimating his wealth at £780m. He has lived in London since 1991.

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Indian, formerly Indian Airlines, will get a new country manager for Bahrain from tomorrow (July 22).

Niranjan Kumar, formerly the airline’s airport manager, will take over from Sanjay Misra, who is moving to the East Indian city of Kolkata where he will be deputy general manager.

Misra, who took over from G Dinakaran in June last year, said though his stint has been short, he had a most fulfilling experience.

“The very brief stay here has been a revelation and me and my family have been made to feel very welcome,” he said.

Misra said the already strong foundation set up by his predecessors for the airline’s operations out of Bahrain had been further strengthened with the active co-operation of the Bahrain Airport Services (BAS).

“We have grown from strength to strength over the years and more and more people have chosen Indian to fly home,” he said.

“This is a tribute to our operations, which have also seen a record 100 per cent on-time performance over the last year.”

Misra paid tribute to the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and BAS officials who, he said, have extended all help for airlines to prosper.

Kumar said he would carry on the excellent service Indian is known for.

We would make extra efforts to ensure that we get even more well-known as a passenger-friendly airline,” he said.

Misra is expected to leave Bahrain on July 25 with his wife, Mahtaj and son, Suvrat, a class nine student at the Indian School.

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To ensure quick action in case of a hijack situation, the Centre has decided to do away with the regulation that requires National Security Guard (NSG) personnel to be ferried in aircraft belonging to government agencies only.

The decision was, in fact, taken just two weeks before the 7/11 blasts. According to the new rules issued by civil aviation ministry, NSG men can now be ferried in any aircraft to deal with a hijack situation anywhere in India.

“There has been a heightened security alert in the country and aviation industry is a prime threat. The elite security force trained to deal with hijack situations, NSG, is based in Delhi.

It is certainly a possibility that when the need arises to immediately fly them out of Delhi to deal with a hijack situation, no government plane is available at that moment. Hence, this decision was taken,” said a source.

The idea is also to take hijackers by surprise. Earlier, the landing of an Indian Airlines or an IAF aircraft was a sureshot way of declaring the arrival of NSG.

Now, the crack team could arrive in a plane of any of the private carriers. The source said private airlines may not be willing to ‘endanger’ their aircraft in such situations.

To ensure that such problems of ‘unwillingness’ don’t arise, the ministry order is binding on all aircraft that have a permit from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

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India had paid USD 200 million in ransom to the Kandahar hijackers of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 in 1999, said a senior Congress leader.

In a new twist to the Kandahar controversy, Congress leader R K Anand alleged that the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had “carried more than USD 200 million to the hijackers of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 in 1999 under international pressure,” a leading English daily, The Statesman, reported here on Thursday.

Anand charged that the money had come from the “international community” via Switzerland because Swiss “currency king” Robert Giori was among the 180 passengers held hostage by the hijackers for one week.

“There was pressure from the US and Switzerland to secure Giori’s release for any amount of money,” said Anand.

However, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) rejected Anand’s charges.

The Kandhar controversy, which has refused to die down, was in the headlines of the media a month ago when on June 15 a prime accused in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999 told a special court in Patiala, a city in Punjab state, that the entire drama was planned by the Indian government.

Deposing before the designated court, Yusuf Nepali said the entire hijacking drama was fabricated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Home Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.

Nepali, who allegedly assisted the hijackers, told the court that it was an attempt by the government to get rid of three terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

An Indian Airlines (Flight No IC-814) aircraft flying from Kathmandu to New Delhi on December 24, 1999 with more than 180 persons was hijacked and made landings in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates before being taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The hijack drama ended on December 31 after the release of three jailed terrorists — Mohammad Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Sayed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar — by the Indian government.

India released the three jailed terrorists and flew them to Afghanistan, where they were exchanged for 180 hostages aboard the Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 that was hijacked on December 24, 1999.

One passenger, Rupen Katiyal, was stabbed to death by the hijackers.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today extended by 18 months the moratorium on payment of compensation to Indian Airlines due to merger of Vayudoot Ltd with it.

“The CCEA today gave its approval to extend the moratorium by a further period of one and half years beyond March 31, 2005 so that the remaining amount of Rs 3.11 crore out of the total amount of Rs 138.33 crore due by Indian airlines on account of merger with Vayudoot, could also be finally settled,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmushi told reporters here.

The move would help Indian Airlines discharge liabilities of Vayudoot during the current financial year 2006-07 without financial burden.

Scheme for agri marketing infrastructure liberalized

The government today liberalised the scheme for strengthening agriculture marketing infrastructure by allowing state agencies to utilise their funds for the purpose instead of relying on bank credit.

Under the existing guidelines for the central scheme on “development/strengthening of agricultural marketing infrastructure, grading and standardisation, assistance under the scheme was credit linked.

Assistance for the scheme under the existing guideline is credit linked and subject to sanction of “infrastructure project” by the specified banks based on economic viability and commercial considerations.

Under the revised guidelines, state government agricultural marketing board/state agencies would be permitted to utilise their funds in lieu of bank loans for financing projects under the scheme, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

It also decided to allow projects located in hill states of Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to be eligible for higher subsidies admissible for hill areas irrespective of the altitude at which a project may be located.

Hilly area is defined as land situated 1000 metres above mean sea level.

Under the existing guidelines, the rate of subsidy stands at 25 per cent of the capital cost of the project.

But for north eastern states, hilly areas, tribal areas and to entrepreneurs belonging to SC and STs and their cooperatives, the rate of subsidy is 33.33 per cent of the capital cost of the project.

With this approval, state agencies will be better enabled to take up infrastructure projects from their own funds by dovetailing the subsidy under the scheme, without borrowing from the financial institution, Dasmunsi said.

He said J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal will be entitled to higher subsidy in the on-going scheme for taking up marketing infrastructure projects at all places irrespective of altitude.

This would benefit producers at higher altitudes who market their produce from projects located at lower altitude

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