Sudipta Dev – Mumbai
Giorgio De Roni
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GoAir that had in June for the very first time crossed the 10 per cent market share with a capacity share of 9.1 per cent, will soon add its 20th aircraft and consequently be allowed to apply for international traffic rights. “There are many opportunities both from metro and non-metro cities and we are in a final phase to decide as to which market is more suitable for us. We expect to start operations on international routes early next financial year. However, considering the huge potential for growth in the domestic market our strategy will continue to focus on routes within India,” said Giorgio De Roni, CEO, GoAir. Pointing out that India is soon expected to become the third largest aviation market in the world (provided some measures to enhance efficiency like a revision of taxation on jet fuel, etc, are quickly taken), De Roni asserted that GoAir wants to play a key role in this growth story. “That is why we ordered 72 additional A320 NEOs to be delivered between 2016 and 2020,” he stated.
In 2013, GoAir delivered profits with a 20 per cent growth in number of passengers carried. “All this was backed by a consistently best track record in lowest passengers complaints (as per DGCA report). The performances are very similar in the first quarter of this financial year,” said De Roni.
The airline has increased its network with new routes such as Bengaluru-Nagpur-Bengaluru and Kolkata-Nagpur-Kolkata besides increasing its presence in Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir. “GoAir will continue to increase its network on metro to non-metro cities where we have already deployed more than 70 per cent of our capacity. We are presently evaluating options to add a new station with at least three/four daily frequencies at the beginning of coming winter season,” said De Roni.
GoAir recently deployed its VISION 2015 whose key pillars are customer satisfaction at all touch points along with sustainable and profitable growth. “In this project, our team members play a key role and we are significantly investing in training our front line employees (both on ground and on board) to be able to delight our passengers,” he said , adding that, the airline is also revisiting some features of its customer service with investments in many areas, from IT platform to the quality of food on board.