Tag Archives: Chief Strategy Officer

Jordi Cerdo, Chief Strategy Officer, TUI MM, has said “Traditional partnerships are the successful base on which TUI MM will continue to focus and digital solutions with global partnerships will be the growth engine for the future.”

In a bid to further enhance its flight connectivity from Uttar Pradesh, IndiGo has announced Allahabad as its 60th destination after the successful launch of operations to and from Gorakhpur. The airline will now operate flights between Allahabad and Bangalore effective November 15, 2018. From Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad will be the fourth city IndiGo will be connecting from, after Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. The introduction of these flights will bring Allahabad closer to the other cities of India with all-inclusive fares starting from Rs 3620, bookings for which are open with immediate effect. William Boulter, Chief Strategy Officer, IndiGo said, “Allahabad is a key market for us and the fourth strategic launch in Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur on IndiGo’s network. We are strengthening our network from the state and hope to create more affordable, point-to-point connectivity for our passengers. IndiGo will continue to offer an on-time, courteous and hassle-free service and affordable flying experience always.”

OYO Hotels has announced the acquisition of wedding banquet company Weddingz.in to expand its playfield to real estate sector. Globally, the wedding industry has grown to become a $500 billion market and OYO’s sharp focus on global expansion will support its debut in disrupting these markets. Commenting on the development, Maninder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer – OYO, said, “What this partnership facilitates is combining OYO’s capabilities of asset management and technology with the scale Weddingz.in offers in India’s fragmented $40bn weddings industry. The company has a healthy scale of managing 1,500-plus wedding events per quarter, with an inventory size of over 40 banquets spread across Mumbai and Delhi.’’ With more than 10 million marriages in India held annually, the segment holds immense potential for innovation, improvement and standardization of processes. “Weddingz.in is India’s largest banquet management company specialising in weddings led by an extremely ambitious founder Sandeep Lodha and his talented team and the value proposition they bring to the table via skills in managing weddings is clearly visible in their dominance and popularity.’’ added Maninder. Sandeep Lodha, Founder, Weddingz.in, commented, ‘’This alliance will work towards simplifying wedding planning for Indians while tapping the enormous opportunities this space offers.”    

IndiGo is set to operate flights to and from Surat from August 16, 2018, connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur. After a successful launch of seven domestic and two international destinations since January 2018, the airline has announced Surat as its 56th destination. Bookings are open with immediate effect with fares starting from Rs 1999. To provide more enhanced connectivity across India, IndiGo will operate three new routes, including Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati and Mumbai-Bagdogra. All new services start in August 2018. The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. Customers who wish to plan their travel can book tickets via the official website. William Boulter, Chief Strategy Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to fly out of Surat starting August 2018. Surat, undoubtedly holds immense potential for IndiGo, and launching operations to and from the diamond city is in line with our growth strategy for the India market. We are also launching three other new routes which includes Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati, and Mumbai-Bagdogra.  With these new services, we are providing more flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on time, courteous and hassle-free service and an always affordable flying experience.”  

Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, has resigned from the airline, with effect from July 15, 2018, to pursue other career interests. William Boulter, currently Chief Strategy Officer, will be taking over as Chief Commercial Officer. Rahul Bhatia, Interim CEO, IndiGo, said, “I would like to thank Sanjay for all he has done for the company in making IndiGo the airline it is. We are successful at what we do and Sanjay’s contribution has been very significant in getting us to the level we are today. I am grateful for all his hard work since he joined in January 2007 and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.” Kumar said, “The last 12 years at IndiGo has been the most satisfying and rewarding experience of my career. I am extremely proud to have been a part of commercial success of the airline. I would like to thank the founders and all colleagues for their support during this time.”  

OYO is betting big on the Indian hotel market by partnering with hotels and real estate assets with large inventory portfolio consisting of 100+ rooms under its franchisee and management contracts. In the coming years, it aspires to have 10,000+ rooms as a part of its large-asset category. Currently, OYO has already partnered with 12 such hotels and is managing them across markets including Delhi, Goa, Bengaluru, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Noida, Vrindavan and Patna. Commenting on the milestone, Maninder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer, OYO said, “This excitement we are witnessing in the large 100+ rooms property space post establishing our market leadership with 75,000 keys in boutique and small assets is a testament of the strong and trusted brand we have created with our asset partners and customers. We are thankful to them for their continued support. At OYO, our mission is to add value to every form of real estate and being a full-stack hospitality company, we’ve built capabilities of on-boarding hotel rooms, locked homes, serviced apartments and at the same time managing large-format hotels.” “In the past year, we’ve on-boarded over 10+ such hotels with inventory ranging from 100-200 rooms and another 10+ hotels having over 80 rooms. With similar additions in the coming months, we’ll continue to expand our large hotel portfolio and dominance over India’s hotel market while ensuring high yield for our partners. We are upbeat about our India story and plan to go deeper into our existing markets while adding 50+ cities to the network  and capturing a 5% share of India’s hotel market by 2018-end,” Gulati said.