A Dream Is Born In Delhi
 Capt.
Mukut Pathak (right) is ready with his dream project: Aryan Cargo Express
(ACE), the dedicated cargo airline that he heads as Chairman and Managing
Director, will start flying from around March-April 2010.
ACE was scheduled to start operations in 2008, but the ATF price hike
and the global recession forced the carrier to reschedule its plans.
A trained pilot, Capt. Pathak has seen
Indian aviation from a ringside seat and knows exactly what he is talking
about. Aware that cargo is not glamorous, Capt. Pathak mentioned to
Air Cargo News FlyingTypers that he “came into cargo
because I thought that this particular aspect of aviation has not been
properly tapped in India. I realized that there was a very strong case
to set up a robust airline based out of India because this country is
not just a very big market but its location is unique,” he said.
He mentioned that a carrier based out of India would be able to provide
a fantastic amount of connectivity within the Asia, Europe, Australia/New
Zealand and Africa areas.
Clear about his business plan, Pathak
wants to be in the market as a non-integrated carrier of goods. ACE,
said Capt. Pathak, would have a unique position in the Indian market.
As a dedicated cargo airline, “we
will offer tailor-made services to our customers worldwide”.
ACE wanted to have the first mover advantage
in what it plans to do. That is, perhaps, why Capt. Pathak and his team
have kept themselves away from getting into domestic operations.
He said: “You will not be able to
make money in a purely domestic market operation. The moment you enter
the market, you will face competition. The low-cost carriers will start
selling their space at any cost. That,” according to Capt. Pathak,
“will create a kind of unhealthy competition in the domestic sphere.
Result: the sustainability as a purely domestic operator will be in
dire straits.”
Capt. Pathak’s non-integrated model
sticks to ACE’s core competence: running a safe and reliable airline.
“We will provide airport-to-airport connectivity and for the last
mile we will use services of large trucking companies, courier companies
and freight forwarders. An integrated carrier provides connectivity
from B(usiness) to C(onsumer). ACE will be B to B and for a steady supply
of goods, mentioned Capt. Pathak, “we are talking to freight forwarders
only”.
Having done an in-depth study of the world
market vis-à-vis India, ACE has charted out an initial blueprint.
The three-partner ACE (the other two apart from Capt. Mukut Pathak,
being Rishi Raj Singh Dungarpur and Colonel Vishnu Singh Rawal) plans
to operate in Asia and Europe with two Airbus 310-300Fs and later take
on two MD-11s aircraft before moving on to using Airbus 330-200F planes.
The carrier will be utilizing its base
in Delhi to the hilt. “We are almost at an equal distance from
Europe and the Far East. This is an advantage for us since we will be
able to move cargo from China, South East Asia, the Far East and SAARC
nations to Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and East Africa.”
In addition to Delhi, Aryan Cargo will
have two other hubs: at Bangkok and Sharjah. From these three centers,
ACE would be serving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
nations (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan
and India) as well as South East Asia, China, West Asia, the CIS and
European countries in the first phase.
While the second phase of growth would
connect the Far East, North Africa and Australia/New Zealand, the third
phase would see ACE furthering its operations to the Americas. When
that does happen, ACE would become a global cargo carrier.
ACE’s launch comes at a very crucial
juncture. Capt. Pathak is quite aware that industry is down and yields
are under pressure in Europe and USA. At the same time, the air cargo
segment is growing in Asia and that is where ACE’s main market
would be.
However, some experts have pointed out
that ACE could face challenges in the first few months of operation
if it does not offer something different from the others. Capt. Pathak
takes that in his stride: “We will provide flexibility, reliability
and above all with expertise. We will be bringing in superior service
levels to the market – and mind you everything will be done by
Indians.”
Tirthankar Ghosh
|
We
are ending an Annus Horribilis and closing 10 challenging years
of an aviation Decennis 
Horribilis.
Brussels
Cargo
While others were hit extremely hard by the global downturn, Brussels
Airlines got only some bruises. This also accounts for the carrier’s
air freight activities that contribute substantially to the enterprises’
total earnings. However, lately the revenues and yields generated by
the cargo division shrank because some contenders put in additional
capacity on routes between Europe and Africa, which led to fiercer market
competition. 
Air
Cargo News FlyingTypers leads the way again as the world’s first air
cargo publication to connect the industry to the broadly expanding and
interactive base for social commentary—Twitter.
December
17: Rainer Hiltebrand was named to succeed Gaudenz Ambühl
as SWISS COO starting May 2010 and serve as member of the SWISS Management
Board.
There
is a great moment in some long forgotten 1940’s Christmas movie
where one of the characters says optimistically (as everything else
seems to be going wrong):
Contact!
Talk To Geoffrey
RE:
Women In Air Cargo
