India's first 'vegetarian' airline

Just last month, as I was driving my children to a magic show in Gurgaon, I came across, quite unintentionally, the corporate headquarters of MDLR Airlines. While I don't know very much about the airline, its headquarters, I must say, gave me the jitters.

Located on a small street connecting Gurgaon's main town bazaar with the never-to-be-ready NH8 expressway, it looks more like the office of a real estate agent than of an airline. I, for one, after looking at the headquarters, don't want to fly in an MDLR aircraft. Nor would I endorse anyone's decision to take an MDLR flight to anywhere.

This is not to argue that airline offices must be plush and swank. Not at all. But, appearances in the case of airlines do matter. The company's corporate headquarters must inspire some amount of confidence.

I decided to look a little deeper into the MDLR group, its promoters, and their antecedents and activities. A visit to its website was revealing. I was quite struck by a small message on the site by the airline's chairman and managing director, Gopal Goyal, which among other things claims: "We at MDLR love Nature and All God Made Creatures." His group incidentally is into five-star luxury hotels, resorts, multiplexes, shopping malls and group housing societies, and that is when they choose only to mention a few. An airline was presumably thrown in for good measure.

Well, whatever. But one must go by the track record of the airline (which claims to be India's first purely vegetarian airline). That's what matters. Maybe Goyal has a formula for success that hasn't been found globally yet.

On delving deeper, I came across media reports that talked of how the airline started offering and publishing commercial flight schedules without the requisite licence.

Well, it did have a licence. So what if it was only for non-scheduled operations? Weren't they almost one and the same thing? The directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) was napping while this happened but, being forgiving by nature when it comes to novices, gave the 'airline' a gentle rap on the knuckles and also the required permission.

Is MDLR alone? No, it's not. There's Indus Air. Again, the airline's website is quite informative. It even tells you that its chairman is Brigadier Kapil Mohan, CMD of Mohan Meakins, "who is remembered for his bravery in an incident in 1994, during which he overpowered two hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane from Delhi to Lucknow, sustaining stab wounds from the hijackers in the process." Bravo!

The airline was founded in 2004, had plans to import five CRJ aircraft (it did bring in one or two), was launched on December 14, 2006, and as far as I could figure out, has stopped operating within a few months after its launch since its aircraft lease expired. It either didn't have the money to renew the lease or felt it wasn't worth the effort.

Yet, according to media reports, it was launched with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) and was in talks with Boeing for a ten aircraft order. Where the money went or whether it was ever there is anybody's guess. The DGCA and the ministry of civil aviation have since decided to examine airlines' financials more closely before allowing new players to begin operations. Not a bad idea perhaps.

So, although the ministry has been stingy with issuing licences for altogether different reasons, there is some merit in being careful. Lives have been entrusted to those who have not proved all that trustworthy in the past. Credentials in the aviation business do matter and must be verified.

Before Trans Air, Easy Air, King Air, X, Y and so on -- all of whom have been struggling to get clearances from the civil aviation ministry -- are permitted to start operations, some homework has to be done. And while it may mean an effort, a visit by the DGCA to the proposed service provider's headquarters won't hurt either.