The Benefits of Change

      Personalized handling of cargo will be a norm now that AAICLAS has a CEO in Keku Bomi Gazder. A cargo professional with more than three decades of experience, earlier Gazder was with Saudia Cargo and was responsible for boosting cargo from India. FlyingTypers met up with him to find out his plans.
      Gazder looks at his new post—a big move from the private sector to the public sector—as an opportunity. He has been in his position for slightly more than a month and “can say that the government sector has its own merits and positives.”
      He said that government and the various divisions in the Aviation Ministry had the technical, financial, operational, and intelligence resources along with the vision to be an agent of change.
      At all the meetings with various ministries he had attended, Gazder pointed out:
       “I can say with complete confidence that there is an air of expectation, enthusiasm, and change that will be driving results in businesses.”

The Vision Thing

      “At the end of the day,” he emphasized, “it really does not matter where one comes from as long as one can deliver the desired numbers.
      “AAICLAS is a 100 percent subsidiary of AAI.
      ‘The vision of the company is clear: It will focus on cargo handling, security and documentation handling, supply chain, be a transshipment facility provider, an airport free zones developer, and taken on project logistics.”
      To that Gazder added: “We will also work as a multi-modal interface linking air, surface, and water transport as well as connecting to hinterland points in India, thus becoming the largest networked and fastest growing logistics solution provider in India.”
      As the CEO pointed out, the mandate of AAICLAS is to focus on cargo and increase the cargo handled by the AAI-held airports using best practices and world-class technologies.
      “We are mandated to perform all functions and explore opportunities that contribute to the growth of our airport-related business,” he said.       

Defining Various Sectors

      “AAICLAS will find out the sectors it has to focus on in order to grow in the next five years,” Mr. Gazder assures. “AAICLAS has been working on a five-year vision document.”

Tables Are Turned

      “We are at 2017 and now we need to plan where we want to reach by 2022—with details on the verticals.
      “It will be a blueprint on how and where the company will go forward, along with timelines.
      “There were two key factors that defined AAICLAS: speed in decision-making and the ability to build business.”
      Having been “on the other side of the table” for quite a few years, Gazder said it was comparatively easy “for me to understand what the requirements of the airlines and the forwarders are at the airports and address them in the best collective interest of the industry and economy.”

Not Easy Peasy

      It will not be an easy task, but the top priority for AAICLAS would be to “benchmark ourselves on best practices worldwide and on the Ease of Doing Business index.”
      What has given Gazder the confidence is the positive development in the cargo movement in the AAI-held airports. He expects the business to grow by 10-15 percent in the current financial year and over 20 percent in the next fiscal.
Tirthankar Ghosh