For the nearly three million UK nationals of the Indian diaspora this now provides for the first time an affordable and convenient option for those who want to visit friends and relatives back “home”
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
“Badi Sharam di gal hai (It is a big disgrace).” That is what Madan Paul Singh Judge felt about the high cost and long flight times involved in visiting family in Ludhiana from London and UK. “We still cannot fly direct to where we want to go to in India,” he had said.
That was in 2003. Judge or Nino as he would like to be called started finding out ways to fly non-stop low-cost direct flights to India. At that time, the air services agreement between the UK and India made it difficult to obtain any flight slots at Heathrow or even to gain permission to fly to India’s Tier-2 cities.
Today, around 20 years later, with an air service agreement between the UK and India permitting a certain number of flights per week to India’s second cities, Nino is ready. For him and his low-cost airline POP, India has started investing in upgrading many regional airports to international standards.
Taking his cue from the legendary Tony Fernandes (Group CEO of Air Asia) – Nino worked with him for five years at the Lotus F1 Team — Nino understood that the Air Asia X Low Cost Long Haul business model could be put into practice for flights from Europe to South Asia with a maximum flight time of 10 hours. For the nearly three million UK nationals of the Indian diaspora this now provides for the first time an affordable and convenient option for those who want to visit friends and relatives back “home”.
Through these last two years of the pandemic, POP has been busy getting its act together to start services to India. In April this year, it signed a multiple aircraft A330-300 lease deal with Avolon, the world’s third largest aircraft lessor.
Nino had commented at the signing ceremony: “As a twin-engine double-aisle wide-body that can carry over 400 passengers, the A330-300 aircraft will deliver everything we want to offer our POP passengers, especially the lowest seat prices to India. With this lease deal we have been able to submit our AOC license application to the UK Civil Aviation Authority and expect our first flights to commence by October…Increased flight connectivity, especially on new routes, will create much needed economic benefits for both the UK and India.”
During the pandemic, POP has expanded its team. The new people bring aviation experience and knowledge from many different fields. One such is Charlie Clifton, ex Director of Ryanair, who has joined POP as Senior Operations Adviser and Board Member. He was quoted saying: “The incumbents have been badly wounded after 18 months without any revenue but plenty of costs and debt. POP, on the other hand has avoided any exposure to the pandemic and consequently is in the unique and fortunate position to extract maximum advantage from the lower costs resulting from the crisis. POP’s cost of entry is much lower now than it would have been pre-Covid-19. Low fares always stimulate greater demand. The sector is currently on the floor, but the market will return strongly.”
POP is currently engaged in a rewards-based crowd funding campaign to launch the airline which involves the offer of Gold Passes, each priced at £500, which come with eight VIP benefits. POP will offer the first 7000 people to receive a Gold Pass this first benefit: a return seat to any POP destination; with the next 3000 people being offered an off-peak return seat
POP has sent out an invitation to all those expatriates planning to get married after October this year. Writing in his blog, Nino pointed out in March this year that “POP makes life easier for British Indians planning a traditional wedding”. He goes on to mention that “By operating the only current non-stop flights between the UK and Amritsar and Ahmedabad, we will be opening up new opportunities for the Punjabi and Gujarati communities in both countries, including those planning to hold traditional weddings.”
He gave the reason: POP, the new low-cost, long-haul airline, is aiming to be the only current operator of non-stop flights between the UK and two of India’s key secondary cities – Amritsar (Punjab) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat).
The Punjabi and Gujarati communities in both the UK and India have a long history of maintaining strong family connections, and weddings in particular are occasions when special efforts are made by families to come together. By offering low-cost, non-stop flights between the UK and Indian-based branches of these families, POP will be making it much easier for guests to attend such occasions in whichever country they are held.
In addition, these new routes will make it far more practical for brides and grooms living in the UK to fulfil the widely held ambition to make a pre-wedding trip to India to buy their traditional costumes.
POP is currently engaged in a rewards-based crowd funding campaign to launch the airline which involves the offer of Gold Passes, each priced at £500, which come with eight VIP benefits. POP will offer the first 7000 people to receive a Gold Pass this first benefit: a return seat to any POP destination; with the next 3000 people being offered an off-peak return seat. Of the other benefits that will be of particular interest to UK Punjabis and Gujaratis planning a traditional family wedding, free and unlimited name changes on all tickets bought with a Gold Pass and an extra luggage allowance of a third 23kg suitcase are especially attractive.
A further significant aspect of POP (an acronym for ‘People Over Profit’) is its ‘caring capitalist’ business model. The airline will be donating a minimum of 51per cent of its profits to charities in both the UK and India. This is a commitment that POP’s directors believe will resonate strongly with the Punjabi and Gujarati communities in both countries. By flying with POP, they will be contributing to the improvement of their communities in both countries.
POP will fly to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Goa, Kolkata, London (https://www.POP.com/).