Cutting-edge expertise

Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet has a very definite business model but, like all LCCs, a vital element in ensuring its long-term business health is ensuring the minimum turnaround time for its aircraft on the ground at its wide-ranging network of airport stops. And speed is important in all aspects of its operations. Thus, while its point-to-point model will see comparatively few customers needing to make airport transfers, where this is required passengers flying on with SpiceJet on the same day and under the same passenger name record (PNR) will be checked in through to their destination. But, while no time is to be wasted, there are many other considerations to be borne in mind, as the carrier’s senior vice president and head of ground services, Kamal Hingorani, explains: “For us, speed is not speed unless it is incorporated with safety, security and service.” Therefore, all of its handling is undertaken with this mantra in mind, he says. Ongoing training and strict adherence to the airline’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) play a major role in ensuring quality alongside all these factors, Hingorani adds. SpiceJet outsources most of its ground handling work, the personnel for the various tasks being provided by third-party suppliers – although the equipment used actually belongs to the airline. And at some of India’s bigger airports, SpiceJet outsources ramp handling as a whole to concessionary ground handling agents (GHAs), as required by the law and by the industry’s regulator for those specific gateways. In such a large country as India, different locations require different handling modalities, Hingorani points out, and SpiceJet will opt for “the safest and the smartest way”. Whoever is handling for the carrier, however, the standards will be high, he continues. “Our pre-requisites in terms of safety, quality, quantum of time, tolerance levels, are all penned and agreed in the contracts” between carrier and handling agent. Best possible service Like any airline, SpiceJet endeavours to offer the best possible service to its customers, which in the case of an LCC as much, if not more than, a legacy carrier, are its passengers. With that in mind, SpiceJet uses its own staff for frontline terminal operations, “so as not to dilute the ethos of our airline in these vital functions”, Hingorani says. Passengers also get the best possible service in terms of quick aircraft turnarounds, and therefore a minimum of delay at the departure gate. Depending on the specific equipment type, SpiceJet looks to have its Boeing aircraft (B737-800 and 737-900) turned around in 30 minutes. At what he describes as a few “infrastructurally constrained” airports like Mumbai, it may take 35 minutes at remote bays. Even better: “Our turnaround time for Bombardier Q400 flights is a crisp 20 minutes.” This short time between an aircraft arriving on the stand and beginning its push-back is not achieved by accident. “We have cutting-edge expertise when it comes to adhering to turnaround times and we ensure that we achieve these with the handling appropriate for the given situation and location; at places where the challenges are overwhelming, we work on a backward strategy and reach the on-target performance (OTP) by means of whatever it takes to achieve… just that safety is sacrosanct!” Hingorani declares. Many of SpiceJet’s GHAs handle the carrier in multiple locations and have a proven track record, yet performance is still continually and systematically monitored. Moreover, at some of the smaller, more distant network locations, GHAs are periodically assisted by SpiceJet’s own managers in order to ensure that SLAs are not compromised. Of course, while speed and quality are very important, costs cannot be ignored. “Contracting the correct number of outsourced staff by way of analytical and practical reasoning plays a very important role in saving that valuable penny; in large operations like ours, numbers could get hazy and maintaining the correct number is crucial,” Hingorani emphasises. “Synergy and optimisation could be the difference between red and black in this fragile and vulnerable industry,” he says.