AirAsia's Chandilya will have to be cost leader in India
Air Asia's newly appointed CEO- Mittu Chandilya will have to continously re-invent strategies to grab market share in a price-sensitive market like India
Moneycontrol Bureau
Air Asia’s CEO Tony Fernandes has surprised all by selecting the 32-year old entrepreneur from Singapore to pilot the airline’s India operations. Considered a rookie in aviation business, Chennai-born Mittu Chandilya will take charge on June 1 drifting away from his start-up business ventures.Fernandes describes Chandilya as ‘a very smart boy from South, Madras with an amazing CV that will impress all. He also believes that the new CEO's inexperience will not hold him back from leading the airline in a price-sensitive market like India.As has been the standard policy of AirAsia, Chandilya will have to put continuous efforts on becoming a cost leader. In India, passengers change preference, even if there is a Rs 300 discount offered by another carrier.He will have to compete with biggies like IndiGo, SpiceJet and even full service carriers like Jet Airways and Air India for a wide range of consumers based on price. Read This: Chennai boy Mittu Chandilya is AirAsia India CEOHe will have to maintain lower employee to aircraft ratio when compared with IndiGo and SpiceJet. Though, the Malaysian airline hardly has little over 100 employees per aircraft, it will still have to control employee expense in India, where staff cost is two thirds of the total operating cost. Recently, domestic carriers have unbundled services and will charge for every additional service offered to customers. This development calls for fine-tuning business strategy further for AirAsia.
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