CEO Prock-Schauer envision to take GoAir to new heights

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CEO Prock-Schauer envision to take GoAir to new heights
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Go-Air will have its first major expansion drive since its inception 10 years ago, under the able-leadership of its new CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer. The Wadia Group-owned airline will receive the first of its 72 ordered aircraft early next year. That will increase its fleet size to 20, helping GoAir meet the requirement to fly international — five years' domestic flying experience and a fleet of at least 20 planes.

"Basically, the logic of this business (short-haul international travel) and customer needs are very similar to domestic travel. They all want reliable affordable transportation," Prock-Schauer told ET.

He particularly sees an opportunity in the Gulf and surrounding markets in the East. "The flights are (on average) three hours, which is not very different from a flight to the south or Kolkata," he said.

GoAir operates a fleet of Airbus A320s, with which "you can do a lot of things", Prock-Schauer, 58, said. He has been in this industry for three-and-a-half decades and had headed different airlines in different countries, including Jet Airways, British Midland Airways and Air Berlin. He was also chairman, management board at the Star Alliance, the world's largest airline group, in 2002 and 2003.

"Prock-Schauer is extremely well networked and brings a lot of experience on international operations and alliances to the table,"said KG Vishwanath, Jet's ex-vice president for commercial strategy and investor relations.
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Prock-Schauer is, however, quick to clarify that GoAir's focus will remain domestic operations and profitability. "In whichever market you are, you must be a viable, strong player. If you spread over too many markets, you are not strong...simplicity is the key thing," he said.

GoAir plans to more than double the number of destinations in its network and increase daily flights and annual passenger count by about four times in the next five years, its managing director, Jeh Wadia, had said in a recent interview. He had also said flying international is more about "glamour" than anything else.

Despite, or perhaps due to its limited ambitions, GoAir has remained profitable in the last few years. Prock-Schauer is keen to keep it that way through its expansion.

The Austrian has been somewhat of a scale-up expert. In his first job with Austrian Airlines, he oversaw its expansion from 20 planes to 100. During his six year-plus stint at Jet Airways, he presided over its fleet expansion from 40 planes to more than a hundred, its first international flights to Colombo and later to London, its public listing and acquisition of Air Sahara.

Prock-Schauer crafted a lot of Jet's codeshare agreements with international airlines. Vishwanath recalls a time in 2005-06 when the airline added 20 planes within a span of 18 months. He, along with Jet's former executive director Saroj Datta, made sure the fleet expansion was backed by rapid network enhancement plans, adequate recruitment of crew and engineering support.
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Since leaving Jet in 2009, he headed restructuring programmes at British Midlands and Air Berlin. He also headed two low-cost airlines — Bmibaby, a subsidiary of BMI (British Midlands) and Niki, a subsidiary of Air Berlin.

"I have seen it from both sides. I know both business models," Prock-Schauer said.

"While running Niki, I realised how much simpler it (the low-cost model) is and how many more opportunities you have if you are low -cost," he said. "Full-service carriers are vulnerable. Everyone goes for price and the airline which has the lowest cost base is the winner."



Prock-Schauer agrees with Wadia that it's important to be cautious when scaling up. He has seen the perils of mindless expansion from close quarters more than once.
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Jet acquired Sahara in 2007. The airline came with a huge debt and has remained a loss-making unit, impacting its parent's finances.

BMI, which Prock-Schauer headed between 2009 and 2012, acquired several airlines and itself changed hands twice in complex deals—to Lufthansa and International Airlines Group that owns British Airways—before it shut shop in 2012 due to growing losses and unsustainable finances.

"I think organic growth is the best growth for an airline," Prock-Schauer said, admitting it's a lesson he learnt from his many years of experience. Prock-Schauer quit Air Berlin at the end of February 2015 and joined GoAir in end May.

"I believe in the Indian market. You can see the Indian economy is picking up," he said.

His predecessor, Giorgio De Roni, quit GoAir in March on health grounds. The airline's chief operating officer, Tim Jordan, too, has gone on sick leave after a couple of months in office.
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In Wadia's interview, he had said expats sometimes find it difficult to adjust to Indian conditions. Prock-Schauer wouldn't have that problem, having fond memories of Mumbai from his seven year stay in the city. A colleague at GoAir and Vishwanath were unanimous in counting Prock-Schauer's approachability to all employees as one of his key attributes.

In September 2009, when Jet faced one of its worst cabin crew and pilot strike and a fierce standoff with the management, Prock-Schauer was one of the key spokespersons for the employees, convincing chairman Naresh Goyal to consider their point of view. He quit later that year.

(image credits: deccanchronicle)