Air Deccan's loss at Rs 75 lakh due to rains

Air Deccan, the country's first low cost airline, has suffered a daily loss of Rs 75 lakh due to the heavy rains in Mumbai.

"The rains have impacted our flights badly," the airlines managing director G R Gopinath told reporters here on Tuesday.

Several aircraft have flown over Mumbai, hovered over the city and been forced to return, while some others were diverted to other airports, resulting in huge losses and refunds to passengers, he said.

With the civil aviation ministry directing airlines to reduce their operational capacity, Air Deccan had been forced to reduce its flights by nearly 50 per cent.

Admitting that maintenance was a major challenge, Gopinath said presently the airlines had to depend on the few hangars of Air India and Indian Airlines. "With no separate hangars for the private airlines, this has proved to be a major constraint in maintenance and operations".

"Many a time the delays and cancellation arose due to technical snags, which could be looked into only when the aircraft was brought to where the facility was available," he said.

Besides the proposed hangar, the airlines also plans to hand over the maintenance work to a Scandavian airlines' team of seven engineers and to rope in leading personnel of Ryan Air, known for its expertise in low-cost airline operations.

The airlines is keel on augmenting its current pilot strength of 200 to 650-700 in the next five years, he said, adding that despite being a low cost airline, the salary structure for its employees is "as good or better than our competitors".

On the shortage of pilots, he said this was the phenomenon everywhere. "But pilots will realise that they can't leave every three months.

There will be some pressure on the industry, but by creating the right atmosphere, we can take care of it".

To a question, Gopinath said that during 2004-05, Air Deccan saw revenues of Rs 350 crore, which is expected to reach Rs 1,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

On its closest competitor, he quipped: "I think its Laloo Yadav." Getting rail passengers to travel by airways was one of its biggest challenges. "Presently, nearly two million people travel by train and if we are to wean away even 5 per cent of that, it means a huge potential".

"Presently the airlines is not even equipped to cater to such huge potential, because air travel was popularly conceived with the rich in mind. However, Air Deccan has changed all that. The growth of our passengers has not come by poaching on other airlines, but by tapping a hitherto overlooked market of middle class passengers," he said.

On complaints of refunds, John Kurvilla, chief revenue officer, said those buying tickets from travel agents will have to get back refunds from them. The delays often arose due to confusion over this aspect, he said.