Rise Again!

Last 19 years built brick by brick brand took a beating in the past few days due to serious lapse on compliance.  A brand which started small with support from investors and dedicated team members made it really big in Indian corporate scene.  In recent times, when seeing the departure screen in airports painted only with Indigo blue fascinated me as to how a brand became so dominant in a short period of time leaving competition way behind.  

Aviation is not an easy industry to be in, it is capital intensive, labour intensive, technology intensive, cost intensive and to top it all customer super sensitive.  In my experience, in a corporate world managing human resources is the most challenging part considering the fact that every single human resource is different plus the fact (we like it or not) human resources tend to have a bias to "herd mentality" for example if one passenger for whatever reason gets upset and starts to show it off at the airport counter or departure counter quickly a group is formed (impromptu) to endorse this view point and join the show off.  

Indigo succeeded and made it big (with profits) in an industry where many players went bankrupt quickly not able to survive the harsh realities of this industry.  When success keeps going well someone took the eye off the compliance ball which hit the entity on its head knocking it down needing urgent medical attention.  At this point of knock down questions are raised and deeply analysed about the way Indigo goes on with its business with everyone giving their point of view - fair enough this is good as always having a reality check opens up new thinking which is good to bring about a change (even a paradigm shift).  

I sincerely hope this knock down is temporary for Indigo since as a brand they made all the right moves and went to top purely on their merits in a reasonably short time 

Giving birth is ecstasy, making right decisions and actions to reach the pinnacle is pure joy, keep the top position for a longer period is a sense of achievement, getting into small turbulences is painful, rising back again is double ecstasy!

I hope Indigo gets to this double ecstasy mode soon.  Wishing you all success Indigo, keep flying high on your own merits.       

Compliance taken lightly

My first choice when I need to fly will now become one of the choice when I fly in future.  A reputation built over years of hard work has taken a jolt which will need another good amount of time to re-build - hope this happens soon.  

To me it seems to be a "simple" miss on Indigo side which proved too costly, they did not take the new rules notified by Government on Flight Duty Time Limitations or FDTL seriously and did not work to comply by it 100%.  Maybe they were expecting it to be relaxed or extended for further period of time, it was not to be and all chaos followed.  The below is the cost of this "miss/lapse" till now only on refunds (other losses not withstanding) 

A total of 586,705 PNRs (for period between 01 to 07 December, 2025 were cancelled and refunded, amounting to total of Rs 569.65 crores. A total of 9,55,591 PNRs (for period between 21 November to 07 December, 2025 (2359hrs)) were cancelled and refunded, amounting to total of Rs 827 crores. 4500 bags were delivered to customers out of a total of 9000 bags. Target to deliver balance bags in the next 36 hours. Today, IndiGo plans to operate 1802 flights to 137 out of 138 destinations, with 500 cancellations: Source : Ministry of civil aviation

 Lessons Learnt : 

• Compliance to rule of law is paramount 
• Being big does not mean immunity to changes in compliance
• Management to take change in laws seriously and work on it immediately 
• Cost is paramount, we need to keep it minimal.  But we need to understand "Compliance comes with a Cost" - we need to accept this.  We can optimise cost but cannot avoid/reduce it at cost of compliance

US$ feel good @ 90!!

US$ marching towards 90 to INR is providing good comfort to exporters as they try to re-coupe some of their losses due to tariff imposed.  To me this seems to be a deliberate attempt by the Government and RBI to provide impetus to exports.  

                                                            USD vs INR

                                                                    Euro vs INR

The next big question will be what will happen to inflation if currency depreciates.  This question is answered / offset by drop in oil prices & commodity prices.  Inflation is on an all time low in India thanks to drop in oil & food prices and reforms in GST 

Smart "netting" move by the Government & RBI -> Netting of currency depreciation with fiscal / monetary measures is a way of informing the world that India is a mature economy which is resilient to external shocks and pressures.  Growing internal demand coupled with internal capital mobilisation is further helping India to be immune to external pressures.  Let us keep this going folks.