Newsmaker: Mark winders

Soaring on a silent strategy

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MARK WINDERS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
SPICEJET

You don't expect a company that shut operations several years back to set new records in sales. But that's exactly what happened last week when SpiceJet, which had last flown in the mid-1990s as ModiLuft, sold over 37,000 tickets on the very first day of opening bookings.

This, the company said, was an Asian record "" no other company in the region had received such bookings on day one.

"I do not know how it happened. We did not even advertise about the prices," says SpiceJet chief executive Mark Winders.

But grill him a little and Winders will tell you how he made it happen.

He calls it a 'silent strategy'. Till the launch was announced earlier in the week, fares were kept well under wraps and so were the routes and frequencies.

Though there were indications that SpiceJet would take the airfare wars to a new low, Winders zapped customers by offering 30,000 discounted tickets priced between Rs 99 and Rs 699. By Friday, the bookings had crossed 60,000.

Winders, 55, after all is a veteran of low cost airlines. Low cost operations in not new to Winders. He was the brain behind the Canadian low-cost carrier CanJet.

Winders has been the president of Cayman Airways and NWT Air, executive vice-president and chief operating officer for CanJet Airlines.

He has held senior commercial management positions in both Air Canada and Air Ontario and has held numerous operational and planning positions with Air Canada, including director, systems operations control.

The promoters of the company, the Kansagra family, brought him into the company (its name had changed from ModiLuft to Royal Airways) in 2004 from CanJet, the low cost Canadian carrier.

Winders played a key role in refining the initial business plans of the defunct carrier.

'Mark had convinced us about the viability of the project and the ways to operate it. I see that he had adapted to the situations very well," says a company insider.

His first priority was to infuse funds into The company. And he did it successfully - Citibank, ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs, IL&FS have invested to acquire a 20 per cent take in SpiceJet.

At the same time, Winders got the promoters to bail out the company by paying off of its dues to the airports as well as the government.

Winders then placed an order for 30 aircraft, with a list price of over $1.8 billion.

The next task, and a bigger challenge, was to get the government's nod to start services. It was not an easy task as the government had even raised doubts about the viability of the venture.

Winders was able to prove the viability of his business model to the authorities and the company got the coveted licence to launch operations.

According to Winders, who loves gardening, swimming and Chinese food, the entry of SpiceJet will bring some order into the Indian low cost flying market.

The strategy of Winders and SpiceJet is clear. Capitalise on the weaknesses of Air Deccan and the full service carriers.

"We want to bring some degree of respect to India's low cost air travel experience. We will fly the most modern aircraft with the highest standards in operating efficiency and reliability, which is not the case today when it comes to low-cost flying in India," says Winders.

How does he plan to do this? Winders has come out with prices to woo the present air travellers as well as the rail travellers. But he wants to offer more.

"Efficiency is the key. I may be offering tickets at Rs 500, but I need to fly at the scheduled time-table. Passengers will stop coming to me if I am late always. This is a problem some Indian carriers facing now," he says.

Winders hopes to turn an operating profit by the end of the first half of the very first year of operations, and have a positive cash flow by the end of the first year.

Just for the record, share prices of the company have risen nearly 60 per cent this year.

Low cost operations in not new to Winders. He was the brain behind the Canadian low-cost carrier CanJet. Winders has been the president of Cayman Airways and NWT Air, executive vice-president and chief operating officer for CanJet Airlines.

He has held senior commercial management positions in both Air Canada and Air Ontario and has held numerous operational and planning positions with Air Canada, including director, systems operations control.