저자: AkasaAirCEOVinayDube · 외국인
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아카사 항공 CEO는 조종사 이탈 및 소송 사태는 이미 끝났고 성장 모드로 복귀했다고 주장한다. 재무 상태는 현금흐름 플러스이며 초기 투자금에 손대지 않았고 대규모 항공기 발주가 가능할 만큼 현금이 충분하다고 밝혔다. 조종사 사태: 40여 명 사직 보도, 6개월 계약상 통지기간 준수를 요구한 델리 고등법원 판결을 소비자 친화적 판결이라고 평가. 24시간 이내 무통보 이탈이 운항 차질의 원인이었다고 설명. 운항 축소: 벵갈루루 발 노선 일부 중단은 6월에 수익성 높은 노선 슬롯 확보 때문에 바꾼 것이며, 이번 사태와 직접 관련은 없다고 주장. 신뢰성 확보를 위해 매출보다 운항 안정성을 우선했다고 설명. 재무·성장: 항공기 20대까지 세계 최단기간 도달, 현금흐름 플러스, 3자리 수 항공기 발주를 75일 내 추진할 수 있을 정도의 현금 보유. 올해 말 2대 추가 인도, 연말 약 25대, 이후 15~16개월 내 약 두 배 확대 계획. 국제선: 리야드, 제다, 도하, 쿠웨이트 운항 허가 확보, 국제 노선 출범 준비 중. 시장 전망: 시장점유율 목표는 없고 수익성 장기 성장이 목표. 올해 말 회계연도 말 노선망이 현재보다 30% 이상 커질 것이라 밝힘. 향후 10~15년 인도 항공시장의 황금기로 전망. 투자 관련: 고(故) 라케시 준준왈라 등 투자자 기대에 부응했다고 주장. 관련 자산 직접 언급 없음.
다듬은 글
hello and welcome to this very special conversation India's latest commercial airline akasa a recently celebrated its one-ear anniversary of operations and was in a dream run with having over 20 aircraft in its Fleet getting the go-ahead for international operations as well and also increasing their market share but unfortunately the last few months have raised a lot of questions on the stability and the financial health of the airline is all that a thing of the past we have with us a very special guest the CEO of the airline Vin dub vin it's always a pleasure speaking to you thank you so much for taking out the time and joining us thank you appreciate it thank you for having me so wi I want to first begin with the couple of elephants in the room I want to first begin by understanding the most pressing issue that has unfortunately garnered a lot of headlines in the last few weeks and months which was the legal Saga between pilots of aasa and the airline itself now our numbers in our reportage had told us and a lot of sources on record also that there were upwards of 40 pilots who in fact had resigned which in fact led to the airline facing a lot of disruptions so I want to First just understand has all of that now been sorted is it now fair to say that pilot shortage is no more a concern for the airline uh yes uh rhma this is all behind us um and to be honest pilot shortage was never concern uh I think what was the concern was you know this small handful of Pilots actually abandoning that post and leaving aasa without even 24 hours notice uh we are a team of planners we've been around in aviation for a long long time we would never launch an airline you know without adequate planning for Pilots but this was a situation uh you know that is honestly that's never transpired before and I've been around in aviation for a long long time where this handful of Pilots decide to leave without even 24 hours notice this is not something that one you know really plans for um and so I would say that is well behind us um and we we are squarely back in growth mode vinice so the case in fact had gone to multiple courts as well so I want to understand how did you see the proceedings there we've seen proceedings in the Delhi High Court as well as the Bombay High Court How would you try and categorize the proceedings and the final outcome would you say it was in favor of the airline well uh so so the relevant uh proceeding we're talking about is the Delhi High Court yeah and to be very honest I wouldn't characterize it as favorable for the airline because really this is an issue that affects consumers uh so I characterize this as a ruling that is favorable for consumers because the ruling very clearly stated that the contract actual obligations between the pilot and the airline needs to be respected and that is not in favor of the airline that's in favor of consumers uh because you know the the people that bear the brunt of Pilots abandoning their posts are consumers as was experienced by sadly as was experienced by our our customers in the July and August time frame so we're very pleased with the ruling that it is a consumer friendly ruling V I want to just talk to you specifically as far as the entire issue of the notice period was concerned because you pointed this out a short while ago that these handful of Pilots as you're categorizing them in fact left without even a 24-hour heads up so what did you have to feel as far as ruling about the notice period was concerned sorry what did we what did we can you repeat that question so I was essentially just asking because you spoke about earlier that these pilots in fact left without a heads up of 24 hours so then what did you feel particularly as far as the ruling around on the notice period we just what what we were seeking was that the contractual notice period which in aasa's case is six months for this very very critical and highly skilled job uh that our six-month notice period be respected and I think that was the Delhi High Court ruling that uh that the contract between you know aasa and its Pilots needs to be respected and and and so you know that was that was really what we were seeking for now wi this of course had very unfortunate ramifications for the customer and for the airline as well because we did see suspending of operations from bangaluru to Chennai Hyderabad so what's the word as far as the flight disruptions are concerned yeah so so first first you know you named two destinations bangaluru Chennai bangaluru Hyderabad I will tell you one of them was you know had nothing to do with this one of them was was really uh changed back in June and and the reason reason that was changed was just because we had some really juicy go a slots available and so that was something that we decided just to just to fly uh you know to an alternative much more lucrative destination uh so I wouldn't you know I I wouldn't really um equate the two but having said that this is all behind us okay right whatever whatever reduction in network uh we had to take we took so what we did was we put our Revenue uh as a secondary consideration and and the stability and dependability of our Network and therefore the dependability of what we offer our consumers as the primary objective and so we reduced our schedule uh and and again that is all behind us and now we're back in growth mode so you'll see us our Network only continuing to increase and and in fact you will see us you know selling a network for March uh or the end of this fiscal year that is you know well over 30% larger than what we're flying today so V because you're saying it's all a thing of the past it's not just the pilot issue but there were a lot of reports as far as the financial health of the airline also were concerned when the airline had started and we' spoken multiple times in the past when you had the likes of rakes junjun Vala as an investor the expectations of course were huge and akasa did manage to achieve a lot of them just in a short period of time so I just want to ask you a direct question it's twofold one where does the financial health of the airline currently 10 and also as far as the stability of the airline as far as a 10-year growth plan is concerned sure so let me let me clarify that I'm glad you asked because we are perfectly fine with huge expectations uh you would expect that uh that the late and great Mr junjun Bala would have picked uh you know would have picked a good horse to bet on uh so let me let me clarify that you know unequivocally sure um Mr junjun Vala and you know other investors gave us us are initial Capital we have gone from 0 to 20 aircraft faster than any other airline in the history of global Aviation and rhythma we have not spent even one rupee of that Capital right that to me should classify as above above you know average expectations or exceptional expectations however you want to characterize it we are cash flow positive in fact we have added to the reserves of the initial investment I don't know how much more unequivocally to put it so these these rumors for me should be put to bed okay our cash position which is really the you know for for a young Airline is the indicator of the Financial Health our cash position is solid in fact we have enough cash not only a to add to the reserves of the initial investment but we have enough cash to put a triple digit aircraft order out within the next 75 days that's that's the other part that I want to put it and and you know for anyone who's in aviation they understand the the financial strength and security that one needs to be able to put out a triple digital aircraft order with the cash that we have on hand today okay so taking on from what you saying if all of this is a thing of the past let's not talk about what can we expect as far as the future is concerned as I pointed out when I started that just in the first one year reaching that number of 20 which is crucial for any airline that is starting up because you get the go-ahead for international flights I want to understand where do the deliveries of your pending order in terms of your aircraft currently stand sure we should have two more by the end of this uh this calendar year uh we should exit the financial year with about 25 aircraft and we should exit the following Financial year with about 4 aircraft doubling our Fleet here in the next you know 15 16 months so very very excited and it's not just the increase in in deliveries that excites us but we have uh you know we're on the cusp of flying internationally we've got Ruth authorities now for Riad and jeda and Doha and Kuwait and that's just to begin with so we're very very excited about the launch of international operations because these are some of the most lucrative you know Roots yeah that you know an Indian airline could get and so we're we're extremely excited about what the future holds for aasa when speaking specifically as far as a domestic Market is concerned we had seen a good growth momentum with akasa unfortunately then that saw a dip in the last few months as well but now with the festive season diali and the holiday season as well and the grounding of go that still continues what is the kind of market share expectation that akasa is currently working with and secondly what is the kind of demand that you're seeing for the for the upcoming holiday season yeah so so first let me clarify we don't uh have any market share expectations we're uh you know we we're not targeting anything what we're targeting is growing profitability so longterm health of business there's nothing at aasa we do for the short term so you know um you know market share is what our market share will be really we're looking for you know satisfied customers were looking for the Financial Health long-term Financial Health of the company this is what we're building towards uh in terms of our in terms of our future the other thing you talked about a did let me tell you that you know from a planned perspective we had plann for these aircraft to be delivered the end of this year planned for future deliveries and so we are squarely in the middle of our delivery stream and delivery plan okay uh in terms of this particular holiday season I think it's going to be an incredibly strong holiday season as far as you know airlines are concerned in fact the way I look at it this is the golden decade for Aviation and Airlines the next 10 years is a very exciting time for us given the the the sort of the Indian economy given the size of the population the under under penetration of Aviation here that we have today we've just got this incredible future ahead of us uh for Aviation uh for the next 10 15 years
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