Gaurav's Blog

 

The Flying train

 

 

It is just past midnight. After tossing and turning into your bed for an hour (a result of double dose helpings of the extra rich butter chicken that you have had for dinner washed down with Johnnie Walker black), you are just about to enter into the deep slumber when your blackberry (with overused faded keys due to constant SMS's that you send while sitting on the cold toilet seat, lulling yourself to believe that you make the most productive use of your time) starts to ring its irritating ring. You make a mental note to move to the I-phone 4 as soon as the new aircraft deal is sealed.

As you struggle to open your eyelids, sneaking one look at the phone and the other at your wife to check if she has been disturbed, 'Leahy' it announces, is the caller. He is your affable big boss and he has the license to kill,….er… I mean… to call you at any (or all) of the 24 hours in a day. It's minus degrees, but you rush to the balcony, and fake the adrenaline rush into your voice, managing to produce a crisp, enthusiastic greeting masking any signs of yawning. Leahy's voice is merry, dancing with jubilance. It may be your midnight but Leahy is in a mood to wax eloquent about his latest deal with XX airline while the cold numbs your feet. 45 minutes later, somewhere between him going on about his exploits, and you being in a dilemma about letting the wind out loudly (or not, lest the phone's microphone catch it), he suddenly changes the topic – the call is about your bonus. You are being given the India sales territory. You are about to let out a joyful shriek, thinking about moneybags you will bring home, when he drops the big dampener- no bonus on narrow bodies, until you sell A380's. You can't hold anymore, letting out the loud one, just at this very moment. But if any A380's were sold, it would seemingly be worth its weight in gold, the boss elaborates helpfully.  

2 years later, you have tried every trick in a salesman book- arranging champagne and caviar parties, organizing aspiring Bollywood starlets for important people, obtaining secret lists of Swiss bank account holders, sponsoring MBA courses for the half dozen progenies (some unofficially so, born out of wedlock) of the prospective promoters but to no avail! You have even flirted with the idea of financing the coup in the small island nation that could change a few geo-political calculations, pleasing the powers that be. Success is still elusive. Then, as a blessing from god, you overhear your office peon talk about Mamta didi and The Duronto Express and unexpectedly, an idea strikes. What if you were to tell Leahy that Mumbai Airport capacity crisis can be turned into an opportunity? You are already visualizing the first slide of the slick PowerPoint you are going to show Leahy with the Chinese character Wei-Ji splashed over it in red that spells crisis one way but reads opportunity in reverse and just as the opportunity part of the character is displayed on screen, the slide will turn green (indicating greenbacks). Terrific, you think, congratulating yourself. Leahy would be sold on this. This year you are surely buying that Ferrari for your recent Lebanese interest you met at a Dubai bar. You jot down your thoughts and immediately decide to call Leahy on the phone. This is how the conversation goes:

Leahy (nasal American twang) - What have you got for me, son?

You- Well, I am sure of selling some A380's if we position it …er...um...as The Doronto Express. I mean, as a flying train that can carry 853 people in one class configuration mainly between Mumbai-Delhi. A train carries that many people, imagine the impact on per seat price, Leahy!

Leahy- Go to sleep son. I told you to get off Marijuana, didn't I?

You- Please let me explain Leahy. Look Mumbai Airport is bursting at seams. It can't handle any new movement, even though traffic continues to grow. The average boarded figure continues to rise, which means wide-bodies have to be used on domestic sectors sooner or later.  

Leahy- There are a lot of wide bodies between A320 and the A380, now don't waste my time. A380's are optimized to fly long hauls. Are you even aware that our biggest customer has asked us for a higher gross weight variant of A380 so they can offer longer flights to the US West Coast?

You: Yes, I know. But I am proposing using the aircraft at the other, opposite end of the spectrum. After all, Japanese carriers did use high capacity 744-SR to service similar high demand domestic routes, don't they? Even China Southern has decided to test the A380 service between Beijing and Shanghai. Besides, we anyway offer a 1 class 853 seat configuration to Air Austral. All we need to do is to customize the maintenance program for short hauls, to take care of the increased engine cycles. We will need certification for it, but that's small change.     

Leahy (somewhat less doubtful): hmm…The Indians can't even board an A320 in an organized fashion, and you want to compare them to the Japanese. And its not just the maintenance plan. We will have to work on a full variant customized for short hauls – with reduced fuel capacity, recalibrated lower power engines and some other changes such as the landing gears to take the strain of increased landings. Anyway, what figures are we talking about?

You- The Indians can change, Leahy. Really, take a look at Delhi Metro and how even the Delhites have shown discipline in boarding it. Plus we will have Airport bosses salivating just at the mention of A380's doing multiple landings every day.   

Leahy- Figures son, I want figures!

You- Sure, I think we will manage to grow the market 20% every year for the next 10-15 years based on capacity increase multiple between the A320 and the A380. There is no constraint on demand in India except price. Price, is the strategic P in India, not product, unlike Japan. We will be able to offer second tier non- air conditioned train fares on at least 20% of the seats and even the rest would be sold at an incredible 3-tier air conditioned train fares of Rs.2000-2500. It is not unfathomable that we sell 50 of these special variants over a 10 year period.      

Leahy (now almost in agreement) - Well son, I am pleased to hear that. Send me the plan and we'll consider it.