Airbus's Kiran Rao - by Bhupesh Bhandari
Most Indian visitors to the Airbus headquarters at Toulouse in France are pleasantly surprised when Kiran Rao, executive vice-president (marketing and contracts, customer affairs), Airbus, serves them hot dosas with lip-smacking sambhar and coconut chutney. All made at home, with the choicest of Indian spices, by his wife. What few people know is that his wife is English (Bangalore-born Rao himself is a British citizen) — as far removed from South Indian delicacies as an Eskimo from swimming trunks, writes Bhupesh Bhandari.
If that doesn’t convince you that he is a marketing genius, you could take a look at the numbers. Rao has so far sold between 250 and 300 aircraft to various Indian carriers in the last few years.
Airbus’ market share in India has improved from 70 per cent in 2005 to 75 per cent in 2006.
In the last one year, Rao said, Airbus studied every aspect of the Boeing 787 to come out with a better aircraft. “The A350 is wider, lighter, consumes less fuel and flies longer than the Boeing 787,” he added. These factors, according to Rao, can make or break an airline. As airlines operate on wafer-thin margins, 1 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency can result in savings of millions of dollars. One additional seat in economy can earn $2 million and one additional seat in business class can earn $6 million over the life of an aircraft.
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