Royal flying, janata fares

Q&A: Vijay Mallya

chairman of the UB Group, has hit the headlines for inking some major business deals.

For starters, UK's Scottish & Newcastle bought a 37.5 per cent stake in United Breweries Limited for Rs 940 crore. UB Group's IT solutions company also acquired a couple of IT consulting services companies in the US. That's not all.

Mallya signed a deal with Airbus to acquire 10 A-320s for his Kingfisher Airlines to be launched in April. The maverick Member of Parliament (Janta Dal Secular) also introduced the third edition of the much-coveted swimwear calendar.

Though Mallya was keen to discuss his "beautiful" calendars, he did not mind fielding questions on his airline venture. Excerpts from the interview with Business Standard

This is your third edition of the swimwear calendar. Is it big business?

The calendars are not for sale so there is no money in it. I print about 1,500 of them and personally prepare a list of who to send it to.

But it is a coveted piece of art. Basically. I am very passionate about the Kingfisher brand and the calendar is one of the manifestations of the ongoing, brand building exercise.

Since the traditional advertising media is not available to us [read liquor brands], we've always sponsored music and fashion shows. The calendar extends our association with fashion and celebrates the fashion designers and models.

But why use swimwear every year? Are you copying Pirelli?

I must admit that I was inspired by Pirelli. But we are not copycats. And yes, it will always be swimwear. Kingfisher is the king of good times and ghagras do not go with the brand image.

This year the beaches have been replaced by a walk on the wild side in South Africa. I actually wanted to shoot in Angkor Wat (Cambodia) but was weary of the mahila sangathans knocking at my door for defiling the temples.

On the business side, why start an airline? Isn't it a highly capital intensive and foolhardy business to get into?

An airline is not a new idea for Kingfisher. We operated scheduled flights in 1990 with two Dorniers. But government restrictions prohibited us from buying new planes, There were so many restrictions that one day I said I don't want to be in this business.

But it is not a foolhardy business any longer with 27 per cent growth in passenger traffic in one year. Yes, it is capital intensive but it is the only business where the assets are moveable.

If an aircraft is not flying in India, it can fly in Australia. It makes for a good business case.

But the business is meteoric in nature.

The advantage is that we are not launching in a mature market where it may be tough to survive, but in an emerging market. Which other country has seen a 27 per cent growth in airline traffic?

What kind of an airline are you planning?

Our airline will be modelled after the US carrier JetBlue. It will be a low-cost operation but the aircraft will have frills.

We have chosen brand new aircraft. We will have eight aircraft in the first year of operation and 16 by the second year. All are Airbus and 174 seaters.

What's Kingfisher Airlines' positioning?

The airline will offer one single Kingfisher Class for all. There'll be no business class. The front and the back rows will be treated royally, in the same way, but charged janata fares.

All the seats will have individual TV sets. You have noticed that companies are encouraging their executives to travel in the economy class. Everybody from Azim Premji downwards at Wipro travels economy... My fares will be 25 per cent lower than Jet Airways.