Air Deccan and the man Captain Gopinath were in news recently, after the release of the movie ‘Soorarai Pottru’(Tamil movie) starring actor Surya. The movie was the autobiography of captain Gopinath, who made Indians fly at an affordable price. The inspirational story of Captain Gopinath was unsung till the movie displayed the life events with perfection and with same emotion. Time when owning a flight or flight company was too far, even upper class Indians can’t think of a flight journey at that time Captain Gopinath owned a flight and made Indians to fly at affordable cost, even he gave air tickets at Rs1.
Dream big and you can achieve it, these words are too motivational and inspiring, but how many of us have done this. This story is about G.R. Gopinath who made his dream come true, in spite of all the roadblocks he had.
Captain GR Gopinath is back in the news for his responsibility to launch 'low cost aviation' in India. This time, it was inspired by his life and through the extension of his book 'Simply Fly'. Air Deccan owner G.R. Nedumaran Rajangam story based on real life story of Capt. Gopinath is an exciting story of a man who fulfilled his dreams and was ready to go anywhere to make it come true. With the launch of his predecessor Air Deccan by Captain GR Gopinath, the credit for making Flight Dream available to thousands of Indians is often credited. In short, his journey from the remotest parts of Karnataka to rule the sky was very interesting.
Air Deccan Story
If we Indians can travel in flight and if every Indian can think of a flight journey and if we believe that flight journey is not an impossible task then we should thank Captain Gopinath and his Air Deccan, he made flight journey affordable for us, he connected the remote place by air. He was the revolution in the flight industry and because of his efforts and measures we have affordable flights now. Air Deccan was the first choice for most Indians and the success story of Air Deccan was very inspirational.
Air Deccan's vision is to reach out to the common man who can be seen through Captain Gopinath's low cost business model. Air Deccan is the first low cost carrier in India to facilitate air travel by providing safe and reliable transportation that is easily accessible to the general public through travel agents, call centers and even the Internet. Can. A very big thing at the time. Air Deccan thus became the first Indian company to connect several of its distribution routes to the Internet, thus avoiding the cost of printing tickets, giving it an edge over other carriers competing with it.
Must Read: Simply Fly : A Deccan Odyssey(Book)
Air Deccan also offered air tickets at Rs 1, which no one can even imagine at any time and Air Deccan not only gave promises, they made 20000+ Indian fly at only Rs 1. Air Deccan was started in August 2003 as a subsidiary of Deccan Aviation, a Bangalore helicopter charter, founded by Indian Army officials in the late 1990s (including Captain GR Gopinath, the current Air Deccan Managing Director). There was a time when Air Deccan operated 90 routes to 55 domestic destinations and had a market share of 14%, making it the third largest domestic airline in India.
Air Deccan actually connected India by Air, the remote places when no other flight company thought or willing to fly, Air Deccan connected these places and set a new example for rest. Air Deccan actually made the impossible possible and set a new example for the rest of the companies. Air Deccan has bases in seven Indian cities in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai - the latest addition to the south of India is Trivandrum, which operated the new A320 from Delhi to Chennai in April 2006. And Mumbai via Cochin.
In April 2005, US-based Capital International and Indian investor ICICI raised $ 55 million in Air Deccan convertible debentures for aircraft expansion from venture funds, but continued to grow rapidly (carrying 4.1 m passengers per year from March 2006). The growth was very fast and very robust and Air Deccan became the 2nd largest in 2005 in India.
Earlier Air Deccan operated a fleet of 31 aircraft. Initially the major part of the airline's aircraft was the 48-seater ATR 42, but in February 2005 Air Deccan ordered 30 72-seater ATR 72-500, half of which were purchased and half leased - and three-second lease. Agreed to give hands ATR 72-500 and three seconds ATR 42-500 hands. ATRs are coming in at a rate of eight per year and augment Air Deccan's regional network. The number kept on increasing but later Air Deccan failed in the fight with the increasing competitions. Other companies followed the path which Air Deccan showed them, but at the end Air Deccan was forced to stop most of their services due to loss.
What happened to Air Deccan?
The journey and the concept behind Air Deccan was very glorious but now we all are searching for Air Deccan, we all have a question in our mind that what happened to Air Deccan?. After Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru, based on Captain GR Gopinath's autobiography "Simple Fly", made many of us ask, "What exactly happened to Air Deccan?" Or "How true is this movie really?".
Air Deccan was unable to sustain competition and with rising fuel costs, Air Deccan suffered a net loss of approximately $ 340 billion ($ 30 million) as of June 2006. For new entrants, in addition to market share, Air Deccan also has plans to expand with the purchase of approximately 20 new aircraft and new ways to add significantly to its debt.
Pressure is mounting from their board to go along with Vijay Mallya’s proposal as they are facing high losses and have expansion plans, so they agreed to merge with Kingfisher. Negotiations then began and United Breweries Group (Kingfisher's parent company) acquired a 26% stake in Air Deccan. In December 2007, Air Deccan was rebranded to Simplifly Deccan and handed over to Kingfisher. However, in 2008, Air Deccan's business operations merged with Kingfisher and Mallya made significant changes to the Air Deccan brand, which changed Air Deccan's vision and intent to become a general airline.
It has made efforts to restart the airline to go to all four destinations by 2019 under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN . He focused on providing services in areas where large aircraft carriers do not provide their services so that it is minimally competitive. However, the airline has suspended operations due to the global epidemic.
If you have not read the autobiography of Captain Gopinath ‘Simply Fly’ try to read, this will surely be a motivational book and this will change the perspective you think and will add a value to your life.
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