Mr Markku Nokkala of Oman Air with Ami Goenkar President Prasann Sheldenkar (L),
members Dr Pravin Kharangate (3L) and Anand Kenkare (R) on April 29, 2010

Open Up the Sky!

"You have come to convince a convinced person," a very straightforward and practical Mr Markku Nokkala, Chief Network and Planning Officer at Oman Air, told AMG team members, who too have become experts after passionate discussions on the issue with top officials in the industry.
Mr Nokkala is positive on the possibility of direct flight to Goa, in fact, he charted this path long ago, when he was with Qatar Airways, the route many of us find convenient to ply even from here today.
During our 45 minutes conversation with him, we learned that our skies are not just full of stars, moons and dreams... but traffic rights too and that they’ve applied for new rights with the Indian aviation authorities -- which of course, we all know, how occupied there they are/were with IPL f/r-ights.
And even if that happens now according to Mr Nokkala, WY’s order of new Embraer aircraft won’t be delivered until next summer and who knows what clouds will gather overhead then. It’s a cut-throat industry with lousy business model and razor-thin margins. Besides, non-stop flights require higher percentage of premium class fare paying passengers. We'll have to do some serious number crunching on that too.
But regardless of these rights and lefts, all of our efforts tell us that we are going in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking. And you know what they say... direction is more important than speed.
* Winds of Change

No comments:

Post a Comment

Site Meter