GoAir CEO Wolfgang Proc-Schauer outlines its route expansion plan in an interview with Arindam Majumder and says that the aircraft delivery schedule, which was impacted by the snag in A320 neo engines, will normalise by September. Edited Excerpts:
What is your aircraft delivery schedule in the near term?
We will be getting three aircrafts within a period of three months from June to August. From September onwards, normal delivery schedule will be resumed that will increase our fleet strength to 37 aircrafts by the end of FY18. Out of these, we will have 19 A320 neo aricafts.
How has FY16-17 been for Go Air?
I cannot disclose the exact financials before the results are approved but what I can say is our financial performance has improved as compared to the previous finacial year. However, FY17 was definitely better than FY16. Neverheless, we have been profitable for the last fiscal
How is the market situation? Have airlines regained pricing power?
Yields are still under a lot of pressure and the pressure on pricing continues. Everyone is expecting May to be a good month but this is again a lean season. The market situation is also not very easy. There has been a sharp increase in infrastructure costs, levies, charges- all of which have increased. All this contribute to a less conducive business environment. Taking the factors of the market into consideration, I think we have done better.
Go Air is not adding new destinations. What is your route planning plan?
We fly to 23 destinations currently. Basically, what we want to do is to connect these cities with higher frequencies. That’s what our route planning will mirror in the near future. The Pune-Kolkata flight is a good example. That is our third non-stop and these 23 airports represent around 85 per cent of the total domestic passenger in India. We want to become strong in these 23 markets. So you will first see addition of frequencies in these markets and then we will venture into new destinations. But first, we want to be a meaningful player in these routes
So capacity addition in the existing routes is the way forward?
Yes absolutely, that’s in my opinion the way forward. Having a meaningful presence in existing markets is our goal.
How has the issue with Pratt & Whitney A320 neo engine issue effected you? When do you see the situation to become normal?
Due to the engine issue, we are couple of months behind our delivery schedule for those planes. That has led to a situation that we had to postpone our international expansion to the winter schedule of 2017-18. In the second half of the year, it will lead to the normalisation of our original plan. That’s what the plan is and we are also quite confident of the measures taken by the manufacturer to rectify the faults. Hopefully, after it becomes normal, we can pick up according to our original plan of expansion.
Is leasing planes an option?
Yes. We are not ruling out laseasing as an option. We will look at all available options but right now we are looking forward to the three new aircrafts that will be arving soon.
