One of the few companies in theworld offering a complete rangeof aircraft from the single jet or

propeller engine aircraft to the full sizebusiness jet, US based Cessna AircraftCompany is getting proactive in orderto dominate the business aircraft sectorin the country.

The firm is already upping its mar-keting initiatives in the country andexpanding maintenance and repair fa-cilities in the country.

"India is still a market that is beingdiscovered and we are proud of the factthat we are at the forefront of the dis-covery process," Todd Duhnke, Direc-tor, international sales told fe. "WhileBrazil is a developed aviation marketwhere the growth numbers for busi-ness jets are not rising that high any-more, India on the other hand is post-ing amazing growth rates in thebusiness aircraft market year-on-year,"Duhnke added.

The firm manufactures the mostcomplete line of aircraft in the worldfrom Citation business jets, to freight-and passenger-hauling utility Cara-vans, to personal and small-businessSingle Engine Pistons for every kind ofuser in the business and private air-craft space in the country.

The aircraft are marketed and soldin India by Karnataka based TanejaAerospace and Aviation Limited(TAAL).

TAAL has represented the CessnaAircraft Company for their Ci-tation range of Business Jets inIndia since 1995. They essen-tially have a stand-alone mar-keting division that is also sup-ported by an operations armthat provides turnkey Opera-tions and Maintenance sup-port for Cessna Business Jetsin India.

In addition, TAAL provides

consulting support to help po-tential customers evaluate theirflight and travel requirementsand thereby find an appropriatesolution.

"We make sure that all oursales representatives in all partsof the world are able to providethe potential client with all theadvice necessary to enter intothe exclusive club that is privatejet owners and operators,"Duhnke said.

"They provide help witheverything from financial analysis toroute analysis including issues like im-porting of the aircraft, pilot and crewrecruitment and even parkingt andmaintenance," he added.

On the growth rates of Cessna,Duhnke said that Cessna had deliveredmore jets in the world than any otheraircraft manufacturer.

Cessna's range of aircraft can costanywhere between $1 million to $22million for all aircraft from single en-gine turboprops to super luxuriousbusiness jets. The aircraft manufac-turer even sells turboprop and traineraircraft and is looking to garner a hugechunk of India's burgeoning small air-craft sector.

"The large number of pilot traininginstitutes need trainer aircraft and thegovernment's many initiatives to pro-mote seaplanes in the country giveCessna's caravan series a huge gatewayinto the country," an official from In-dia's Cessna representatives said.

Cessna's hugely popular Citation se-ries of business jets are already themost flown jet aircraft in the countryand now their caravan series of sea-planes and single engine turbopropsthat can land anywhere especially In-dian terrain are all set to flood the In-dian market.

Growing wealth and a rapidly im-proving infrastructure has ledBrazilian aircraft manufactur-

ing major,Embraer to be very optimisticabout the Indian market,especially afterearly fleet orders for the Phenom familyin India.

Last year,Invision signed a contract for18 Phenom 100 and two Phenom 300 exec-utive jets. This order combined with pre-vious orders from Aviators India for twoPhenom 100 aircraft has brought thebacklog for Embraer hugely popular Phe-nom jets in India alone to more than 22.

The Palam-based CommunicationSquadron of the Indian Air Force that fer-ries the President,the vice-president,theprime minister and visiting dignitarieswill operate four of the 14-seater jetswhile the Border Security Force (BSF)will use the fifth air-craft.

Apart from this,soon to be launchedSouth India based re-gional aircraft carrierStar aviation is all setto start operationswith brand new Em-braer aircraft.

Jagson is also intalks with Embraer inorder to place an orderfor $20 million worthof aircraft in order toexpand its capacity.

Embraer and the Indian Governmenthave also signed a billion dollar deal forthree EMB 145 AEW&C (Airborne EarlyWarning & Control) jets. The contractincludes a comprehensive logistics pack-age comprised of training,technical sup-port, spare parts, and ground supportequipment. The proven ERJ 145 plat-form, currently being used on Intelli-gence,Surveillance and Reconnaissance(ISR) missions in Brazil, Mexico andGreece, will join the AEW&C Programunder the responsibility of India's De-fence Research & Development Organi-zation (DRDO).

The Brazilian aircraft maker's rela-tionship with the Indian governmentstarted with the signing of an agreementin September 2003 for purchasing fiveLegacy executive jets for VVIP use. Thetotal order is estimated to be worth aboutRs 727 crore (Rs 7.27 billion).

"In India we see a lot of untapped mar-ket potential. The growth potential for ex-ecutive jets in Asia, and especially in In-dia, is phenomenal. There is a lot oflatent demand in India and South EastAsia where the growth is coming fromfirst time owners," Captain ManfredBaudzus, Director Business Develop-ment, Embraer Executive Jets Asia Pa-cific said.

"In the next ten years, we expect 1,300new Executive Jets to be delivered toAsia. As a very large and hungry marketwith tremendous growth in the businesssector, India may well account for justover half of those new deliveries," headded.

Embraer is looking at hard selling itsbroad range of business aircraft to thecountry's burgeoning number of high

net worth individu-als (HNWIs). Thefirm has a very entic-ing range of businessjets that are availablein India. These in-clude the Phenom 100priced at $3.25 mil-lion, the Phenom 300priced at $7 million,the Legacy 450 pricedat $15.250 million,theLegacy 500 priced at$18.4 million, theLegacy 600 priced at$27.4 million and the

Lineage 1000 priced at $42.95 million.But the aircraft maker things ca be

easier when dealing with the Indian mar-ket. "The demand for executive jets isthere, but complex processes and lack ofinfrastructure continue to be a problem.We do see major efforts being made to ad-dress these short comings it will needtime to take effect. Today, the processesare not geared to efficient use of executivejets in India. This is probably due to alack of understanding of the needs ofthis industry by Government," Baudzussaid."I believe there was an attempt madeat starting an Indian Business AviationAssociation, this body would requirestrong industry support and leadershipto lobby the Government to help it to bet-ter understand the needed changes. Oncethis is achieved Indian industry will re-ally see the benefits that executive jetsbring as business tools," he added.

“India is still a marketthat is being discoveredand we are proud of thefact that we are at theforefront of the discov-ery process” - TODD DUHNKE

Promoted by one of India'slargest, diversified and re-spected promoter family

groups ( brothers Malvinder andShivinder Mohan Singh), Ran Airis at present one of the leading aircharter companies in the country.The company which per industrysources is looking at going publicsome time in the near future ispresently aggressively rampingup sales, business developmentand marketing efforts. With its de-sire to reach out to all possible rel-evant target groups its is also ef-fectively trying to cross leveragethe reach, presence and strengthsof their promoter group family.

"With our diligent and clientcentric approach we are nurtur-ing our existing client base," San-jay Godhwani, CEO and MD ofRan Air said. The company boastsof an enviable ever-growing ver-satile 'owned' fleet which com-prises turbo props, jets and chop-pers and is going ahead full steamwith its plans of ramping up itsfleet and requisite infrastructurein the coming months. "We wantour air charter business to inte-

grate and seamlessly present a ho-listic face to the relevant targetgroups," Godhwani says.

Ran Air is solely a charter serv-ice and is at present focused onthis model and is not really look-ing as of now at the much talkedabout fractional ownershipmodel.

When asked about thesame Godhwani said thatthe fundamentals of frac-tional ownership were notappealing enough at pres-ent.

"We intend to placeourselves as a premier aircharter company andwant to give corporateclients the real pleasure offlying in state-of-art aircraftswithout having them to bother onthe technical front of mainte-nance, etc. We are even open todesignate aircrafts at client's dis-posal on minimum committed

hours for certain tenure. Thisgives them the privilege of owner-ship without huge investments.In addition, we have lots of otherattractive offers for a corporatehouse who aspires ownership ofan aircraft," Godhwani said onthe business model followed byRan Air.

On the firms' mar-keting initiatives, God-hwani is frank.

"As of now wehaven't aggressivelystarted with market-ing initiatives, thoughit is high on ouragenda. Direct clientcontacts, participationin various forums and

activities will help us reach outto various relevant targetgroups," he said.

"Right now our focus is onramping up and increasing ourexisting fleet; parallel to which

we will soon launch our aggres-sive marketing initiatives," headded.

On the problems being faced bycharter companies, the versatileCEO of Ran Air said that govern-ment policies were changing andit is taking right steps and meas-ures to do its bit for the segment.

"We welcome regulations inthe sector. The onus lies on vari-ous category leaders to sit to-gether and work closely with thegovernment to plan and developthis space. Development ofGreenfield airports and rampingof business structures will cer-tainly push this category in theright direction," Godhwani said.

On the rising input costs forscheduled and non-scheduled air-craft operators, Godhwani agreedthat input costs were going up,and this may challenge overallcosts of operations.

"But we believe that expansionof markets and increased vol-umes in air charter space coupledwith the right intent and backedby staying power will definitelyhelp players to build scaleable andsuccessful business models goingforward," he said.

MAKING THE COUNTRY DANCE TOTHE SAMBA WITH ITS TUNES

WHILE HE MAY HEAD ONE OF THE LARGEST CHARTERCOMPANIES IN THE COUNTRY, RAN AIR IS NOT READY

TO SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE FRUITS OF LABOUR

IN THE NEXT TENYEARS, EMBRAER

EXPECT 1,300NEW EXECUTIVE

JETS TO BE DELIVERED

TO ASIA

With an aircraftrange encapsulatingevery aircraft cate-gory in the privateand business aviationsector, Cessna is wayahead of the competi-tion in India

With a big backlog fromIndian clients, Embraeris in party mode

Cessna leads the way forward

Ran Air in takeoff mode

SANJAY GODHWANI

3JULY2008