Indian Aviation Industry
Travel by air in the modern sense began in India only in 1877, when Joseph Lyna took off from the Lalbagh Gardens in Bombay (now Mumbai), ascended to an altitude of about 7,500 feet and landed in Dadra. In the years that followed, there was a tremendous development of air transportation in India as in any other country due to technological advancement and cooperation from the government.

Air India, formerly known as Tata Airlines and owned by Tata Sons Ltd., operated its first commercial flight in October 1932. On 29th July 1946, Tata Airlines came to be known as Air India Ltd. All assets and liabilities of Tata Airlines were taken over by Air India Ltd., at a cost of Rs. 39,46,116/-. The authorised capital of Air India Ltd., was Rs. 50 million of which Rs. 15 million was issued and paid up at about the end of 1947. The Bombay – London Air Service of A.I.I. Ltd., was inaugurated on 8th June 1948. This was the blessed day when the Free India Tricolor began flying in the sky outside India.

The saga of Indian Airlines began on the 1st of August 1953, following the amalgamation of eight private airlines. The journey began with a modest fleet but high aspirations and over the years, Indian Airlines innovated and upgraded its fleet to emerge as one of the largest domestic airlines in the world to be followed by two private domestic airlines of which Air Sahara is one.

Indian Airlines carried a total of 0.5 million passengers in
1954-55. The three leading airlines of India today carry a total of 13.6 million passengers per year. The total seat capacity of the three domestic airlines today is 23 million per year.

In the fast changing Indian aviation scenario, few have been able to survive the pressures of rising cost, cut-throat competition and increasing customer demand. In this situation, Air Sahara has proven its worth as one of the leading players in domestic Indian aviation. It has constantly brought in new initiatives and has today developed into a comprehensive airline today, which offers benefits and services unmatched by any other domestic operator. Today, the Airline is on the threshold of a new dawn of success and is ready to make its foray into international skies.

Birth of Air Sahara
Formerly known as Sahara Airlines, Air Sahara is a part of multi-crore Sahara India Pariwar. Air Sahara began operations on December 3, 1993 following the Indian government’s decision to open the skies to the private sector. It operated with a fleet of only two Boeing 737-200s. Today, its fleet includes advanced aviation technology New Generation Boeings 737-700s and 737-800s and Classics 737-400s and a fleet of 5CRJs. Offering 103 flights with 11300 seats on a daily basis, Air Sahara flies to various destinations in India, which include premium cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and others. The airline has recently added Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Bhubaneshwar and Ranchi to its route network. The Air Sahara fleet also includes four highly advanced Helicopters (Dauphin and Ecureuil), which provide efficient charter services.

In the past nine years Air Sahara has gone from strength to strength. Today, it boasts of a passenger load factor at par with the two other leading domestic airlines. In its short history this young airline has been recognized for its world-class service a number of times. Air Sahara has bagged the prestigious “Pacific Area Travel Writers Association” (PATWA) award twice. In 1998 Air Sahara won the PATWA for the Best Domestic Airline for International Standards of Service. In the same year, the carrier also bagged the “World Travel Market” global award for its quality of service within the Indian airline industry. In 2001, Air Sahara once again won “Best Domestic Airline for Business Traveller” by Pacific Area Travel Writers Association. Air Sahara had won the Award of Merit at the 34th Annual Conference of International Food Service Association in Texas in 1999 for its Cuisine on Demand concept.

In 2002, Air Sahara bagged two major international awards. The airline won the Sapphire Award on 11th January 2002 at Orlando, USA in recognition of Outstanding Performance in In-Flight Entertainment category for its newly launched Bid and Win Scheme. This is an annual award and is given by the On-Board Services Magazine. Air Sahara had earlier won the Diamond Award on 12th November 1999 at Orlando in the Food Services category.

Air Sahara was also presented with the Mercury Award, the highest in In-Flight innovation, quality and service. This award is co-presented by International In-Flight Food Services Association and International In-Flight Catering Association. A lot of effort has gone into making Air Sahara an airline of repute. To ensure a continuous supply of highly skilled and quality operational staff, the airline started the Aviation Academy at Mahipalpur on National Highway No. 8 near New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on January 22, 1997. In 1998 the Sahara Aviation Academy was awarded with the Golden Peacock for its excellence in training manpower.

However, in spite of its many achievements, until very recently Air Sahara was still only considered the smallest player in domestic Indian Aviation. Then a momentous decision was made to reintroduce Air Sahara as `Now India’s Best Airline’. It was decided that the airline would undergo a complete overhaul and restructuring exercise. The objective was to change the customer’s perception of Air Sahara. Air Sahara redefined itself in terms of an efficient and punctual airline with a high record of on-time-performance and dispatch reliability. It was acknowledged that efforts would have to be made to increase connectivity and offer convenient timings.

A major investment program was launched for the modernization and enhancement of its fleet. Fleet review and route rationalization became the focus points of Air Sahara’s strategy. Five new Boeings were added to the fleet in the last one-year. These were used to add new destinations and increase frequency on existing routes.

In the last one year Air Sahara has focused on reinventing its image. It has repositioned itself as not only the leisure traveler’s carrier but also as the airline of choice of the corporate traveler. Since the focus is also on the corporate clientele, it was imperative for Air Sahara to offer the most exclusive services that match the needs of the business traveler, which it has successfully achieved through its Customer Delight program. Many services such as, `In-flight entertainment’ and `Wing n’ Wheels coach service’ were launched. Exclusive business lounges are opened at departure halls at airports in a number of cities and provide for business and refreshment services. Recognizing the fact that customer satisfaction is the ultimate aim of the airline, Air Sahara has launched its branded
customer services program `Always More For You’.

Detailed research by Air Sahara in the past one year reveals that the key drivers of growth of air travel besides increased business travel were:
(i) Flexi pricing
(ii) Leisure travel
(iii) Connectivity to regional routes, and
(iv) Strong loyalty programs.

The findings of the research became the foundation for many new initiatives taken by the airline. The concept of free companion travel has been introduced for the first time in India. The Sixer initiative won the 2003 PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) award at Jakarta.

These initiatives have been very popular with our esteemed passengers as they offer direct benefits to the customer. Other domestic airlines have also followed this trend and have launched similar kind of concepts to win back the customers.

Air Sahara’s frequent flyer program - Cosmos has received overwhelming response from the customers as it offers faster accruals, lower redemption bars and requires no minimum balance for redemption. In simple words, it is India’s fastest way to fly free.

Interline agreements with almost 100 International Airlines and 29 General Sales Agents spread all over the world makes it convenient for a passenger to book a seat and obtain a ticket from any part of the world.

Air Sahara Sustainability Business Management Model
Air Sahara is now focusing on positioning itself as a professional and passenger-friendly airline for the future. To move in this direction Air Sahara has undertaken a daunting task of designing, developing and implementing `Sustainability Business Management Model’.

By implementing this model we intend to put Air Sahara on an autopilot mode. A special purpose vehicle, named Best Practices Centre has been introduced to facilitate this process by using Process Management approach. The First phase covers implementation of four systems, namely ISO-9001: 2000, ISO-14001, OHSAS-18001 and SA-8000 in an integrated manner.

The design phase of Integrated Management System took around nine months; during this period it has undergone various changes, after long deliberations within the `Core Team’ and in-house/external presentations. The document is prepared to capture the knowhow as a knowledge bank and make a reference document for future modifications and upgradations.
This would address the ever-changing customer/stake holder needs for change as well as to present it for third party certification (adequacy check).

Salient Aspects of `Air Sahara Sustainability Business Management Model’

• It aims at integrating all system requirements into the day-to-day working of the organization.
  
  
• It is dynamic in nature, in the sense that any new initiative/system requirements can be built in. Through this model, new processes as identified or existing processes can be upgraded for addressing changing customer requirements and process owners are empowered to bring in Sustainable changes.
  
  
• This model uses some of the International best practices, such as – Process Classification, as prescribed by American Productivity Quality Centre (APQC), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) – Key Process Interlinkages.

Scope and Limitation

• At present Air Sahara is operating from 20 stations (Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Patna, Jaipur, Ranchi, Bhubhaneshwar, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa, Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Cochin) hence implementation is limited to these stations. Integrated Management System will be automatically extended to all new destinations.
  
  
• Airline business being highly regulated, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set guidelines for most of the operations and adherence to these is mandatory. The system integrates all such manuals, designed in conformance to DGCA guidelines.
  
  
• System at present is constrained by the Supplier specifications/services provided by the aircraft manufacturer and caterers, hence scoped out.

Implementation
Air Sahara Sustainability Model is to be implemented in phases:

Phase I – Integrated Conformance Mode: This is the phase during which four system (ISO 9001: 2000, ISO 14001, SA 8000 and OHSAS 18001) requirements are built into the working of Air Sahara, using the Process Management Approach. This phase can be characterized by four key processes (i) System Design (ii) System Awareness Training (iii) Two levels of Management Reviews and (iv) Communication

Phase II – Benchmarking: Though some initiatives have been taken during Phase I itself, breakthrough will be planned during this phase. Cross-functional teams would be formed, trained on benchmarking methodology and implementation of process improvement.

Phase III – Business Excellence: This will require Self Assessment tool and rate the organization for overall improvement. This rating will be based on International Standards, defining the world-class status.


Shri Uttam Kumar Bose, CEO, Air Sahara

Methodology Adopted

Management Commitment:
This endeavor started with a direction and support of our Hon’ble Chairman to bring in systems approach for the working of `Air Sahara’ and this was followed by rounds of discussions with CEO Air Sahara and his team which resulted in the following decisions:-

• Appointment of Mr. K. Damodaran as Management Representative and Capt. S.P.S. Lamba as Chief
  Co-ordinator. Formation of Management Review Team comprising direct reports of CEO and Core Team comprising representatives from various departments responsible for systems design.
  
• Directional statement of intent- Quality Policy named as Service Statement was released with key objectives for the year 2003-04 and Organization Structure to facilitate this process.
  
• Job Responsibility/ Authority/ Competence Matrix got evolved over a period of six months by way of nominating people to various programs, conducting in-house sessions, attending seminars and through senior sensitization programs.
  
• All Management Review Team members underwent an extensive development program on systems, and core team underwent three days residential programme to prepare them for the task ahead.

Designing the Model/System

• Self-Assessment: As the system design speaks of the desired state to be achieved over a period of time, the same is possible only when the present state is defined. A team comprising specialists on systems visited various locations of `Air Sahara’ to capture the present state of documentation, structures, manuals and instructions. This was done to identify the gaps between the present state and desired state, which is to be addressed by the system design (Air Sahara Sustainability Management Model).
  
• Process Architecture: Based on the inputs gathered during Self Assessment Phase, Core Team meeting was called in and the working of `Air Sahara’ was captured as `Processes’ under `Process Classification’.
  Various system requirements were collated as processes under the title `Governance’.
  
  The comprehensive name given to process list covering both categories `Governance Process’ and `Operating Processes’ is `Process Architecture’, which captures working of `Air Sahara’ as Processes. This process classification has been done as a first step towards the benchmark given by `American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC)’ – process classification. Process Architecture is the backbone of Air Sahara Sustainability Business Management Model as it captures the normal working of airline, addressing the systems requirements as well.