Tag Archives: Kapil Kaul

Kapil Kaul, CEO-India & ME at CAPA, speaking at the CAPA India Webinar titled Maximising Airline Ancillaries, said that in terms of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs), ancillaries are core to the business model and can account for 20-30% of revenue. “We believe that ancillaries are key to profitability,” he said.

Kapil Kaul, CEO, CAPA India, has suggested that leadership and governance will be essential in making structural changes in tourism. “Since tourism is going to be very dynamic going forward, we may require a specialised Tourism Administrative Service, which has policymakers on the lines of IAS. Since tourism covers so many aspects, unless we have policymakers who specialise in tourism, institutional foundations can’t be fed. There is also a need for a legally empowered tourism council on the lines of GST council, which can comprise of union minister of tourism, state tourism minister, secretaries and all other experts whose job should only be focused on policy and regulatory effectiveness, competitiveness, ease of doing business, financing, education and training,” he recommended.

Kapil Kaul, CEO, CAPA India, has said that Indian travel and aviation industry can use COVID for structural changes or reforms. “Indian travel and aviation industry must not push for tactical changes, but push for structural changes,” he said at the CAPA India webinar titled ‘Designing a Strategy for the Revival of Indian Inbound, Outbound & Domestic Tourism’.

Addressing a webinar organised by CAPA India on ‘Reinventing the Airline Business Model in India’, Kapil Kaul, CEO, South Asia, CAPA, said that there is a need to structurally reshape the Indian airline industry – both internally and externally. He also said that post-COVID, the industry may see another round of market exits, this time inflicting more permanent damage on the industry and economy. In the past, the system was largely aware that Kingfisher and Jet Airways were likely to fail, but there was no visible course of correction or action.

Kapil Talking on revival plan for airlines, Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA South Asia during the TravTalk Digital Conclave said that every airline right now is waiting for a government bailout. “Airlines need government support in terms of a bailout package at the earliest. Airlines almost have no cash flow or no excess cash reserves. The revival of airlines posts COVID-19 crisis must be conditional based on international best practices. They need to have the cash for 2-3 months to function efficiently,” he said. Kaul further said, “If the crisis continues for a longer duration, we will have a smaller, shrinking industry. Possibly some exits possible as well. We might see consolidation in the market and possibly the repair would begin from thereafter.”

Talking about the after-effects of COVID-19 on the Indian tourism and aviation industry in the recovery phase during TravTalk Digital Conclave, Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA South Asia said that there is a need to rationalise the number of travel agents in the country. “There will be consolidation across the travel and aviation sector. The change must start by rationalising the number of travel agents in the country. Somewhere, the associations need to relook at their membership. There should be stricter norms to be a travel agent otherwise there will be fewer entry barriers in the industry, we’ll keep having more and more travel agents. Travel trade associations must relook at whether they need so many travel agents? You can’t have thousands and thousands of travel agents. The more and quicker you rationalise, it is better for the health of the industry. There is a possibility that there would be no airline commission or GDS commission may drop(If NDC comes into effect in June) for travel agents in the recovery phase post-COVID-19 crisis. Then you may need to take that call earlier than post to avoid taking drastic measures suddenly. I urge TAAI, TAFI to look at their membership and restrict the qualification to be a travel agent.

Sharing CAPA’s forecast for 2018-19 during the Annual CAPA India Aviation Summit 2018 held in Mumbai,  Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director—South Asia, CAPA revealed some key expectations from IndiGo. He said, “IndiGo’s long-haul expansion will be aggressive and akin to a full service carrier. It will dominate the low cost carrier market which may cause some sort of friction between airlines. IndiGo may also build cross-border joint ventures but it depends on what happens with its plans for Air India, since IndiGo is one of the six possible bidders for the national carrier. IndiGo may also look at franchise as part of its cross-border plans.” Kaul added that while there might be four Indian carriers to bid for investing in Air India, there might also be two non-aviation entities and huge corporates.

The annual masterclass on Indian aviation — the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2017 — started on a positive note, albeit with a caveat. This was reflected in the introductory address made by the summit chairman Kapil Kaul. Speaking at the conference in Mumbai, he said, “The next financial year is expected to be the third consecutive year of domestic growth above 20-25 per cent. That should mean profitability, strengthening of the industry, more jobs and more competitiveness. However, this projection could also be misleading and possibly leading us to risks.” The two-day summit started on Feb 8 and will end the following day with a half day conference on corporate travel.