Touch Base with Indian A&D Industry

It is an idea that he has been incubating for over two years now. For Capt GR Gopinath, executive chairman of Deccan Aviation, it is also a second life. An idea that ‘hit him between the eyes’ even as one of his aircraft made an emergency landing after one engine shutdown on a flight from Delhi to Kolkata. But more about that later.

Today, as he disengages from his role as entrepreneur evangelist for the price-warrior airline that he founded five years ago, Capt Gopinath says he is firming up plans to launch a project that will be “much wider in size, scope and reach than his first love ever was.”

The new venture stems from the need in the Indian market for a good multi-modal logistics operator. “Warehousing and inventory costs are making business expensive and most companies have moved to smaller cities like Nashik or Pant Nagar without a proper logistics backup,” he says.

The new company could offer clients a benefit of 30% cut in their logistics cost by taking over their transport needs. Though he is not willing to part with too much information, he says the cargo airline is just a part of the proposition. He has negotiated with Vijay Mallya to ensure that the new venture will not be a part of the Kingfisher/Deccan grouping and will evolve as an independent company.

Capt Gopinath’s thrust into the logistics arena is partly a result of what Air Deccan went through as a low-cost airline, and the process of operating out of eight bases around the country on wafer-thin margins. Like any other airline, Deccan often faced emergency ‘aircraft on ground’ situations that needed a good inventory pipeline. “We were a start-up that competition was trying to bury alive,” he says. “Resources were low and we could not afford to have expensive spares at every base.

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