The boy who could fly

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Air taxi: Jet Airways has firmly established itself as one of the fastest growing airlines in India.

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No deal: Seen by many as the biggest airline merger in India, the Jet-Air Sahara deal went sour after price disagreements.

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Commanding: Naresh Goyal, one of the world’s wealthiest Asians, aims to rival giant carriers such as British Airways and Air India.

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He started 40 years ago with barely US$2 (100 rupees) in his pocket, helping a small Lebanese airline with its accounts. Today he is the sixteenth-richest man in India (and sixth-richest Asian in Britain), owns one of the fastest-growing airline fleets in Asia and has set his sights on competing with British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France. Naresh Goyal, the founder and owner of Jet Airways, is a rags-to-riches story that says much about the power and muscle of the new India.

He was one of the first Indians to recognise the importance of the Indian diaspora, one of the first to take advantage of economic liberalisation and one of the most astute in understanding that the burgeoning Indian middle class wants what the middle class everywhere wants: to go on holiday and see the entire world.

Today, at his elegant house facing Regent’s Park in London — where, as an expatriate Indian citizen, he has lived since 1991 — he looks back with amusement at his beginnings. His story never actually began with rags. Goyal, 57, grew up in Patiala, in Punjab, in modest but not poor surroundings and used to accompany his father, a jeweller, when he visited his customers. However, when Mr Goyal was 10 his father died and the boy had little chance to go beyond basic education.

Bright, quick and inquisitive, he found a job with his uncle’s travel agency in Delhi — where he used to sleep on the office floor. He had dreams even then of coming to London — although the promise of a job in 1967 fell through.

The break came when Lebanese International Airlines, looking for an accountant in India, took him on, rapidly promoting him to public relations manager in Beirut at aged 20. In the next five years he moved from job to job in the airline world, gaining experience, confidence and a burning desire to set up his own business. He went briefly to Kathmandu to set up a travel agency, then to Jordan in 1970 to work for its newly established airline. He came back to India as regional manager, moved on to Malaysian Airlines then, at an International Air Transport Association (IATA) meeting in New Zealand, met the owner of Philippine Airlines. By the age of 23 he was deciding such issues as leasing Boeing 707s. It is easy see why Goyal caught the eye of the airline bosses. He has always been quick to spot an opening and to make the most of it.

In 1974 he saw a chance to service foreign airlines in India. He needed money. “My mother sold some jewellery and gave me US$965. It was enough to start,” he said. Soon his company, Jetair, was representing some of the big players — Air France, Austrian Airlines and Cathay Pacific. He collected others along the way: his cargo general service agency in Bombay serviced Kuwait Airways. KLM came next, then Singapore Airlines, then Air Canada. And on and on.

Mr Goyal had to wait a long time for the politicians to break the State’s lock on flying. India’s airlines were nationalised in 1953 and the two state carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines, saw little need to improve services or standards. The first hesitant steps to liberalisation came in 1991. The government allowed entrepreneurs to operate “air taxis” and Mr Goyal jumped in. With backing from friends at Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air, he leased four aircraft and began Jet Airways.

It could not run scheduled services but it knew how to stretch the regulations. The taxi service advertised a “breakfast flight” — no time given, but the promise of a hearty meal to tempt Indian businessmen. The same service would be offered for a late lunch. And then a flight with high tea: it was a schedule in all but name and it caught on. The government relented after a year and Jet Airways was born. Its growth since then has been as rapid as India’s amazing economy.

Although Jet Airways was floated in Bombay in July, Goyal retains control through a holding company. The strategy that he has overseen has been meticulous. He saw the needs of India’s frustrated entrepreneurs with no time for the slow train journeys across the country and who were unwilling to bribe their way on to the inadequate domestic network. Thus Jet began to fly between India’s industrial and high-tech centres. By 2002 it was the biggest domestic carrier.

Then he tracked the 28 million-strong Indian diaspora. Thousands work in the Gulf and struggle to make it home when they can. Here was the first obvious market. Then came the Indians in Europe, East Africa and America — groups with enough earning power to afford frequent trips home. About 1.4 million people of Indian descent live in Britain. Until three or four years ago, however, they had only a faint hope of getting a seat at peak times: flag carriers in India and Britain controlled the market. Now Jet flies 26 services a week between Britain and India. This year there will be 35, raising the number of direct flights a week to Amritsar to six. The Civil Aviation Authority estimated last year that 1.5 million people flew between Britain and India — almost three times the number five years earlier.

Jet’s overseas flights began only in 2005, but expansion plans are ambitious. It has leased aircraft from South African Airlines, ordered ten 777s and twelve Airbus 330s. Last month he ordered ten Boeing 787s for delivery in 2012, which will probably serve routes in America and South-East Asia.

Direct flights between India and New York are due. He is to take advantage of a new rapport between India and China when a flight between Bombay and Shanghai starts in the autumn. And Goyal now has his eye on Brussels as a hub for European operations.

There have, of course, been setbacks. A plan to take over Air Sahara, a rival private Indian airline, fell through last year when investors expressed unease. Jet’s market share has fallen in India, as aggressive low-cost airlines have started up. Yet Goyal seems infectiously optimistic. He laughs easily, invites interviewers to lunch at his house and exudes bonhomie — although a flash of impatience comes through when he denounces internet rumours that he holds German citizenship (“Look!” he says, producing and waving his Indian passport) or that some of his funding has come from dubious sources.

He is openly and frequently admiring of his heroes — Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, who led British Airways to success, and J. Y. M. Pillay, former chairman of Singapore Airlines. “They have guided me all my life” — profitably, it seems, to judge from his fortune estimated at US$2bn.

Not bad for an ambitious Punjabi boy who unfortunately left school with only a technical education.

Copyright The Sunday Times 2007.

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