CORPORATE BUDDHA This case study is prepared by Team Think Tank Flight of the Phoenix The Indian Aviation Industry “Indian aviation market is the 9th largest in the world with size of US$ 16 Billion and has a potential to become the third largest by 2020 and largest by 2030.” Nobody would have predicted this in 1912, when the first air route between Delhi and Karachi was established. The first major development in the sector happened in 1953, when nationalization of Indian Airlines (IA) brought the domestic civil aviation sector under the purview of Indian Government. But government took the first major step in 1990, with its Open Sky policy and various other liberalization policies. In the year 2000, many private players started entering the Indian Aviation Industry, and it still is an attractive sector with great market potential and drivers, like: Foreign Direct Investments in domestic airlines Low Cost Carriers (LCC) Modern airports and a growing emphasis on No-Frills Airports (NFA) Cutting edge Information Technology (IT) interventions Despite all these initiatives most of the airlines operating in India are incurring losses. These losses are due to high operational cost, High cost of aviation turbine fuel, High service tax and other charges and Shortage of maintenance facilities. Present Scenario In the second quarter of 2015, domestic air passenger traffic surged by 19.2 per cent to 20.3 million from 17 million in the corresponding period a year ago. Total passenger carried in June 2015 increased at a rate of 13 per cent Y-o-Y to 8.8 million from 7.8 million in June 2014. International and domestic passenger traffic grew by 5.3 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, in June 2015. But a bright future of aviation can be predicted with the fact that even today, access to aviation is still a distant dream for the poor and the lower middle class sections of India’s vast population. Recent Happenings In 2015 four new airlines came into existence and there are more to come. Even while, the state of the existing domestic airlines is not impressive with a few of them in debt, aviation professionals and investors do not find things discouraging and are not hesitating in launching new airlines on regional and pan-India routes. This case study is prepared by Team Think Tank 1 The story of SpiceJet Spice Jet earlier known as ModiLuft is amongst the first private companies that stepped into the Indian aviation sector. SpiceJet Ltd was incorporated in the year 1984 with the name Genius Leasing Finance and Investment Company Ltd. In the year 1993, the company ventured into domestic aviation operations under technical partnership with Deutsche Lufthansa AG. In the year 1994, the name of the company was changed from MG Express to ModiLuft Ltd. On May 4, 2005 the company changed its name to SpiceJet Ltd and started operating commercially in domestic airlines on May 23, 2005. In November 2005, the company launched their daily direct flights between Delhi and Kolkata. They also launched their services to two new cities namely, Jammu and Srinagar. The company’s strategy was based on tapping the price sensitive consumer by delivering the highest consumer value at the lowest airfare possible. This helped them by providing lowest cost per unit in the Indian Aviation Sector amongst all the other airlines. By 2008, Spice Jet had the 2nd highest Market Share of the LCC business in India. In June 2010 Kalanithi Maran of the Sun group acquired a 37.7% stake in SpiceJet, which he further increased by infusing US$ 1 billion in 2012 despite the fact that SpiceJet was incurring losses since 2011. The year 2014 turned out to be a devastating year for Airline of the Indian Aviation sector. In order to compete with other airlines SpiceJet announced a 50% discount on the air-fare, which initially lead to its elevation as the second largest carrier in India’s domestic Market but later, In December 2014, SpiceJet had to cancel many of its domestic flights across the nation, DGCA issued a warning against the Airlines for non-payment of Salaries and dues to the employees, The lowest point for the carrier came when they had to ground all their flights as the Oil companies refused to refuel their plane because of the non-payment. In January 2015, the Sun group sold its entire shareholding to the Airline's founder Ajay Singh and transferred control. At present, SpiceJet has a fleet of at least 35 aircraft that includes Boeing 737s and Bombardier Q400s. Ajay Singh has also announced that SpiceJet is infusing 6 new aircrafts in the month of October. It will be the largest induction by the airline in a month. This case study is prepared by Team Think Tank 2 Key Market Players INDIGO: Being a low-cost carrier, none of IndiGo's flights have business class or first class sections, It offers only economy class seating. The airline offers more than 647 daily flights connecting to 38 destinations including 5 international destinations with its primary hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. At present it operates with a fleet of 97 aircraft belonging to the Airbus A320 family. IndiGo retained its leadership in the domestic sector with a 35.3% market share in June 2015 despite its depleting monthly performance, most airlines’ recorded lower passenger load factor (PLF) due to the end of the tourist season. JET AIRWAYS: It is the second largest airline in India, both in terms of market share and passengers carried, after IndiGo. It operates over 300 flights daily to 74 destinations worldwide. Its subsidiaries are JETLITE and JETKONNECT. AIR INDIA: Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, owned by Air India Limited (AIL), a Government of India enterprise. Air India has two major domestic hubs at Indira Gandhi International Airport and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. On 13 December 2013, Star Alliance announced that Air India became the 27th member of Star Alliance. New players like Vistara, the Tata-SIA joint venture carrier, are taking gigantic steps in Indian airlines industry. Vistara has been able to capture 1.5% market share in less than one year of its inception. Termed "Plan B", the airline is eyeing long-haul flights to the west - US and Europe - when the government abolishes the current rule that a local airline must be five-year old and have a fleet of 20 planes to fly overseas. Market Share (%) 2 1.5 0.9 0.3 0.2 3 8.1 35.3 12.3 16.6 19.8 Indigo Jet Airways Air India Spicejet Go Air Jet Lite Air Asia Vistara Air Costa True Jet Air Pegasus Source: DGCA India Website This case study is prepared by Team Think Tank 3 SpiceJet’s Strategy SpiceJet’s Chairman Ajay Singh within Six months after taking charge substantiated a turnaround. From a loss of Rs.124 crore the company reported a net profit of 78 crores for the June ending quarter, owing to lower fuel prices, improved fleet utilization and renegotiation of contracts. They achieved operational efficiency by pruning the number of aircraft it operates and the cities it serves. The airline’s fuel bill halved to Rs.358 crore during the June quarter, reflecting a decline in prices and the smaller scale of operations compared to a year earlier. The airline was able to keep its unit revenue intact, despite airfares being 15 per cent lower on a year-on-year basis because of an improvement in the load factor. During the quarter, the airline recorded a load factor of 89.8 per cent, the highest in the sector. “We managed to fill our planes and our strategy of simulating the market has paid off,” said Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Kapoor. Ancillary revenue increased, with the airline introducing new products such as hand-baggage-only fares. SpiceJet’s transition from a loss-making airline and its comeback from the brink of collapse last year are being credited to Singh and his management team. It has managed to pay off statutory tax dues, cleared salary arrears, improved aircraft utilization and cut loss making routes. Also, it has consistently carried out marketing and sales promotions and discount offers, which rivals saw as an indication of cash-flow woes though SpiceJet has denied it faces a cash crunch. Deliverables a) Put yourself in the shoes of Ajay Singh and formulate an alternate strategy that could have been adopted to put the airlines back on track and justify the same. b) Also explain how the strategy adopted by you would be effective in competing against the new entrants in the aviation sector. This case study is prepared by Team Think Tank 4 Guidelines The event consists of two rounds: 1. Submission of executive summary based on the case study circulated by Team Think Tank. 2. Campus Presentations by the shortlisted teams. Rules: 1. Team Size- 2-3 members. 2. Team members should be currently enrolled in full time MBA/PGDM program. 3. Team members must be from the same institute. 4. No participant should be a member of more than one team. 5. Submission of Executive summary by 30th October 2015 11:59:59 PM. 6. Please cite all sources of information as references. 7. The decisions of the organizers and the panel of judges will be final and binding on all the participants. 8. Subject of the email - CB_College Name_Team Name Naming convention of the Executive Summary - CB_College Name_Team Name SCORING SCHEME: Executive Summary: 50 Points Final Presentation: 150 Points For Short-listing, Teams would be awarded scores only on Executive Summary (50 points).