WWWAS group hosts Air Asia India delegates at Surat

After a year of correspondence with Mr. Mittu Chandilya, CEO of Air Asia India, our WWWAS Group Administrator Linesh Shah could convince him to at least start exploring Surat as a potential destination for Air Asia India.

Mr. Linesh Shah and other WWWAS Administrators coordinated visits for the delegates of Air Asia India with the Elected Representatives of Surat, WWWAS Members, SGCCI, Travel Agents, FOSTA and some of the leading Entrepreneurs in the Diamond Industry of Surat.

The WWWAS Administrators received Mr. Amit Jha, Network Planner and Mr. Jagtesh Saini, Corporate Affairs at Surat Airport on July 17, 2015. The team proceeded with Mr. Linesh Shah to the Circuit House for a pre arranged meeting with the elected representatives of Surat. Mr. Sunil Chowdhary, Group Member also joined them for the meeting at the Circuit House.

After this meeting, the delegates visited the group members of WWWAS at the Surat Tennis Club meeting room. The administrators and members received the delegates. Mr. Sunil Chowdhary welcomed the delegates and thanked them for visiting Surat. After presenting bouquets  the stage (or rather the screen) was set for a presentation of Surat as a potential Air Asia India destination. Mr. Tarun Chugh, Group Member and Textile Entrepreneur made the presentation prepared by him relying on data from various Government Statistics Agencies and the Airports Authorities of India.

The theme of the presentation was Surat, a metropolis of 6 million people, served by Surat Airport (STV), but no wings to fly. The salient points presented to the Air Asia India delegates were:-

• Surat, a city of trade and wealth.
• Industrial and Corporate Data
• Airport Infrastructure
• Passenger Data for 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2015-2015.
• Analysis of Passenger Data
• Travel Agents and Ticketing Data
• Business Potential for Air Asia India.

The presentation was thorough and impressive. The delegates of Air Asia India were impressed that a citizens' group  could make an elaborate presentation and furnish reliable data and statistics. For their internal reporting on their visit, the presentation itself was half the job done.

After the Presentation, their was a brief Question and Answer Session. The WWWAS pointed out that with the withdrawal of SpiceJet since the infamous buffalo incident, there are 17,000 thousand fliers every month who have been left in the lurch for want of air services at Surat and many passengers are driving to other airports more than 4 hours away to board flights. There is a huge untapped potential waiting to be exploited.

The group members answered the concerns raised by the delegates of Air Asia India. Some of them were:-

1. Whether Surat is a sleepy town and will the citizens be willing to fly at odd early morning or late night hours? Our members replied that Surat Citizens were already waking up at 3 am to drive to Vadodara and board flights at 8.30 am. After midnight and till 10am in the morning, the railway station is crowded with passengers waiting to board trains and connect to early morning flights or international flights from Mumbai.
2. Security aspects after the buffalo incident that has tarnished the image of Surat? The members informed the delegates that as per press releases issued by Mr. Pramod Thakre, Airport Director of Surat, the work on perimeter fencing and other security hazards has been completed and Surat is a safe airport for operations.
3. About the runway degradation and two flight restriction? The members informed the delegates that the restriction was imposed to ensure a longer life for the runway before any major works were to be undertaken. The contract for extension and repairs has been issued to M/s Relcon Infra Ltd. and by end of 2016 the runway will be completed and there will be no restriction on movements. In fact, Surat will be capable of handling international flights also to Middle East and other nearby countries. There will be no interruption of operations during extension and repairs. Even now more than 2 flights operate everyday in the large aircraft category of over 66,000 kgs.  With domestic charters upto 6 Boeing 737-800 flights have operated on a single day at Surat.

Mr. Hemang Jani of SMC gave the vote of thanks and Mr. Linesh Shah accompanied the delegates for their further meetings with SGCCI, Travel Agents, FOSTA and the Diamond Entrepreneurs.

On July 18, 2015, the delegates were to leave from Surat Airport by the Air India flight. Before the flight, WWWAS Administrators arranged for a meeting with the Airport Director Shri Pramod Kumar Thakre. The APD assured the delegates that Surat Airportis safe and capable of handling passengers disembarking from and boarding large single aisled aircraft. He gave a tour of the terminal and operational area including the perimeter that is now fully fortified. He also informed them that 2 aerobridges will be installed by September 2015 and there is availability of parking bays in case Air Asia wants to park and maintain aircraft overnight. In case there is demand for more parking bays to develop a base in Surat, there is ample land available as per the master plan of the airport and more bays can be constructed in case of a demand.

The meeting has been eventful and the delegates are scheduled to report their findings to their CEO after which marketing and security teams will also visit Surat before they finalize Surat as a destination on their network.

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Linesh Shah, after very long a major national level airline has visited Surat to explore the potential.

The presentation made by Mr. Tarun Chugh is embedded below. You can watch in this frame or on You Tube where it is uploaded.

WWWAS group hosts Air Asia India delegates at Surat by Surat Aviation - WWWAS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.