AIR DECCAN

HISTORY OF AIR DECCAN:

LAUNCHED IN AUGUST 2003
A LOW COST, NO FRILL AIRLINE
TARGETED THE UNCONVENTIONAL TRAVEL
ROUTES
COVERED 65 DESTINATIONS ACROSS INDIA
365 FLIGHTS PER DAY
FLEW 14 MILLION PASSENGERS A YEAR
MARKET SHARE OF 11%

 Air Deccan was a wholly owned subsidiary ofDeccan

Aviation.
Its first flight took off on 23 August 2003
fromBangaloretoHubli.
The tagline of the airline was "Simplifly," signifying that it
was now possible for the common man to fly.
The dream of Captain Gopinath was to enable "every Indian
to fly at least once in his lifetime.

Capt. G R GOPINATH

 Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinathis an

Indian entrepreneur,the founder ofAir Deccan,
a retired Captain of the Indian Army, an author,
and a politician.
Capt. Gopinath was born in Gorur, a remote
village inKarnataka'sHassan district on
November 13, 1951.
Gopinath cleared the admission test and
joinedSainik school, Bijapur.

CAREER:
After school, he earned a commission in the Indian Army,
earning the rank of Captain. He spent eight years in the
army and fought in the 1971Bangladesh Liberation War.
He took early retirement from Indian Army, at the age of 28.
In 1997 he co-founded Deccan Aviation, a charter helicopter
service.
In 2003 Gopinath foundedAir Deccan, a low cost airline; Air
Deccan merged with Kingfisher Airlines in 2007.

 In 2009 he foundedDeccan 360, a freight flight business.

In July 2013,Deccan 360was ordered to wind up by the
Karnataka High Court order based on petitions filed by
Dubai-based United Aviation Services (UAS) and another by
M/s Patel Integrated Logistics (PIL) Pvt. Ltd. seeking
recovery of amounts due to them by winding up the
company.
In 2009 Gopinath unsuccessfully contested as an
independent candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014, He unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections on
the ticket of Aam Aadmi Party.

BUSINESS MODEL

Air deccan was the first indian airline to follow a nofrills, low-cost business model.its success lay in the fact
that though the model was inspired by successful lowcost airlines in other countries, it was customized to suit
indian conditions

 Offering low fares to stimulate demand:Air Deccan generate new business throughout India not only in
new and
under-served markets, but also in established markets that have so
far failed
to offer Indian middle-class consumers and cost-conscious
businesses a
choice of sufficiently cost-effective fares. Air Deccan targets leisure,
small
business and corporate customers, and seeks passengers from the
Indian
middle class as well as from the cost-conscious segments of more
well off classes

 Selecting routes to stimulate demand:As of November 30, 2005, Air Deccan offers passengers a choice of 62
routes and 44 destinations. As at
November 30, 2005, it is the only carrier providing service to 9 of its
destinations and one of only two carriers providing service to 7 of its
destinations. We believe that Air Deccans route strategy will help it grow
new markets for air travel in India, as well as help it serve major urban
centres with cost-effective fares. As it grows, we expect Air Deccan to
increase the frequencies of its flights on certain existing routes, connect
new
city pairs among destinations it already serves and initiate service to new
destinations, including some already served by other airlines and some
currently not served by airlines at all.

Reducing costs, increasing utilization:To help make its low-fare strategy as profitable as possible, Air Deccan strives to:
(i) reduce the costs of its operations. It does so in part by seeking to
when such use can complicate operations, such as in passenger check-in,
and outsource non-core business processes.
(ii) provide a no-frills service.
Air Deccan seeks to provide a simple service in exchange for its low
fares. Product and service extras that are not
Reasonably necessary to the core task of flying passengers safely and efficiently
are eliminated. Practices that many other airlines engage in
regularly, such as providing help to passengers during layovers or offering
Frequent flier programmers, are not offered. Air Deccan passengers
experience a pared-down version of flying compared to what many other
airlines offer. But, they can pay less for an Air Deccan ticket and still get the basic
transportation service they require.

 Providing a safe and on-time service:We consider the provision of safe travel to be of essential
importance to our service. We believe that customers also demand
on-time service and expect a minimum of delays, flight
cancellations, baggage handling.

Increasing ancillary revenues:In addition to charging for tickets, Air Deccan earns revenues
from charging for in-flight food and drink, selling advertising
space on the Interior and exterior of its aircraft and in a number of
other ways. The airline regularly seeks to earn ancillary revenues
where opportunities exist and the simplicity of its operations will
not be compromised.

REASONS FOR CLOSURE OF AIR DECCAN

Air Deccan, plans
an
IPO in NSE to
offload 25% stake

January 25,
2006

IPO bombs and

barely manages
to scrape
through

May 18,
2006

IPO is floated in
the price band
of Rs 150 - 175

June,
2006

Airline Industry is faced

with a slump and with
low
funds Capt. Gopinath is
pushed for consolidation

February 27,
2007

Air Deccan upgrades it

ticketing system to
Radixx. Huge
investment is made

December,
2007

Acquisition by Kingfisher &Rebranding:

Severe competition between airlines resulted in almost
all the Indian carriers, including Air Deccan, running
into heavy losses.
On 19 December 2007, Air Deccan merge with
Kingfisher Airlines.
Kingfisher bought 50% stake in Air Deccan resulting to
new brand Simplify Deccan with logo of Kingfisher.
By April 2008, Kingfisher Airlines completely took over
and a naming it to Kingfisher Airlines.