November 27, 2024 (Punjab Khabarnama Bureau) -In May 1993, when Jet Airways took to the skies, Naresh Goyal, the young airline founder, was a general sales agent (GSA) for a clutch of foreign airlines that operated in and out of India right from 1967. By the time he set up his airline in partnership with Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways, both of whom initially held a stake in Jet, Goyal was the GSA for 17 foreign airlines, had cut his teeth and had a keen understanding of what it takes to succeed in this space. As early as the 1970s, Goyal was attending IATA annual general meetings to hone his own knowledge and networking to make connections with global industry professionals who attended these. It was armed with this knowledge and experience that he set up what soon became the best airline in India, Jet Airways. The name of the airline also came from his GSA business: Jet Air Transportation Ltd. This also gave him an invaluable network with the Indian travel agents community, a source of strength for the airline in the early days. A former Jet professional said that Goyal single handedly did what full airline teams today are unable to manage with the same canny and competence. Moreover, unlike many of the subsequent private founders and investors in the sector, Goyal had virtually no access to funds (like the Marans or Mallaya) and no large corporate group backing (like Tatas or Wadias).
Not only was Jet considered the best among airlines in India, it also managed to gain a reputation for its reliability and high-quality service globally. Moreover, from the time it took to the skies, Jet had a clear and well-defined business model and armed with a committed body of professionals who learnt under the keen eye of Goyal, the airline was a success by any standard. Its eventual decline and fall were more a reflection of the changed times — and the advent of the low fare airline revolution — than its own creation, barring the big mistake of buying Sahara.
If Jet’s founder built his business from scratch, India’s largest private airline, Indigo, too had a similar trajectory. A contemporary of Goyal’s was Kapil Bhatia who was also GSA for a few airlines through his company, Delhi Express Travels. Once his son Rahul Bhatia returned after studying abroad, he consolidated the business under Interglobe Aviation. United Airlines was one of the clients and it was through this that Rahul made the connection with his co-founder and future partner Rakesh Gangwal, who at the time already had several years of experience in the airline business and had both the knowledge and the network Rahul might have lacked at the time. Another advantage that Bhatia had at the time was that his company was the main distributor for Galelio, the global reservation and distribution system for airline tickets used by most back then.