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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0067.PDF
Vayudoot: the mystery clears During the course of 1981 reports began filtering through to the West of a remarkable new airline project being launched by the Indian Govern ment. According to the incomplete infor mation available, the new airline would be charged with no less a task than providing scheduled third-level local air services throughout the entire mighty Indian sub continent. Reaction in the West was tinged with incredulity. But the reports kept coming in, and gradually it became clear to Western observers that the Indian Government was serious in its resolve. The manu facturers of several leading small Western utility aircraft wereapproached to bid for a potentially huge production and licence- building contract. They learned that India wanted about 200 light utility aircraft to meet urgent national requirements. A large number would be needed for military duties, but many would-go to the new state third-level airline. India obviously meant business; but the new carrier still seemed something of a pipe dream. Even its name was mysterious. Vayudoot; a name to intrigue the Western mind, and not an "Airlines" or an "Air Transport" to be found anywhere in the title. What was this mystery airline all about? Flight set out with intense curiosity to uncover the facts. We interviewed Vayudoot's general manager Capt B. K. Bhasin and Board member R. Prasad. Vayudoot was indeed brought into being to expand India's domestic air transport network on a very large scale. A few years ago, the national Government and India's two major existing airlines became aware that many towns round the country were begging to be given scheduled air services. It became obvious that there was an enor mous well of potential air travellers waiting to be tapped. The Government agreed with Indian Airlines and Air-India that it would cer tainly be desirable to do something about the situation. But immediately practical problems arose. Indian Airlines, as the State domestic carrier, should have been the obvious choice to set up a national third-level scheduled service network. But it was realised right away that Indian Air lines' cost and union structure was too rigid, its overheads too high, ever to per form the task economically. Indian Airlines had always found it almost impossible to operate its smallest air craft — HS.748s and F.27s — eco nomically; when combined with the effects of the very low fares the Government forced the airline to charge, its cost struc ture demanded break-even load factors which sometimes exceeded the capacity of the aircraft. . FLIGHT International, 8 January 1983 Above Vayudoot's general manager, CaptB. K. Bhasin. Below The airline's logo. The curlicue represents the Hindi character Wa— Vayudoot is really pronounced Wayudoot—and the L-shape represents Limited Few in the air transport industry have heard of Vayudoot. But that will change if all goes well in the next two or three years. Chris Kjelgaard reports from New Delhi would feed passengers into major Indian Airlines destinations for rapid jet transit on trunk routes. They would deplane back to third-level services at the other end so that they could reach their destinations—wherever in the country—quickly and easily. And so Vayudoot began operations on January 26, 1981, India's Independence Day. Its first services were flown in the remote north-east of the country, linking towns in states such as Assam, Manipur, and Tripura. The new airline's first air craft were two F.27s leased from Indian Airlines, which still provides extensive technical and staff support for Vayudoot. Vayudoot, not surprisingly, is a Hindi word, or more correctly phrase. It literally means "ambassador of the air"—"vayu" stands for air, and "doot" for ambassador. The name caught on in India immediately, because it bears reference to fabulous mythological aircraft discussed in one of the most important Hindu scriptures. The ancient scripture known as the Rama- yana, which was written in the source language Sanskrit, contains many refer ences to "Pavandoot", a flying vehicle or vehicles which transported human beings in the far distant past. How far? The Ramayana was written at least 7,000 years ago. It is fundamental to Hindu culture, and most Indians (particularly the poli ticians) liked both the mythological con nection and the idea of a totally Indian name. From the start Vayudoot had to struc ture itself differently from Indian Airlines and Air-India, though each owns 50 per cert of the new carrier. Vayudoot was allowed the use of two F.27s, and then two HS.748s as well, to start schedules on a fairly extensive network in the north and north-east of the country. But it had to be able to keep its cost structure well below that of Indian Airlines to make the best use of the $1 million invested in it. The Vayudoot management also had to make sure that inflexible union practices did not kill off the new airline before it had a chance to get started. Experienced pilots were needed to get the airline flying. Bha sin and his colleagues had to make the pilot union understand that Vayudoot could not follow the normal Indian re cruitment practice of taking on and train ing young and inexperienced pilots. If it did, the airline would have to start oper ations with raw hands on the controls of its sizeable turboprop aircraft; and very shortly afterwards it would have to entrust its brand-new and expensive LTAs to the Indian Airlines had other, happier, problems to think about as well. Passenger traffic on its existing network linking major domestic destinations was growing so fast that the airline was struggling to get enough new jet aircraft into service just to keep up. The tremendous effort needed to gear up basic operational safety standards, provide pilots and engineers, and construct maintenance facilities for such a large new project would unques tionably have had an adverse effect on Indian Airlines' existing operation. So the decision was taken to bring into being a totally new airline. Its raison d'etre would be to develop a completely new domestic network, linking up with Indian Airlines' network at the biggest cities, and some state capitals. All of the destinations the new airline would serve (apart from the few big base cities) would be com pletely new, not covered by existing Indian Airlines services. The new network 87
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