MUMBAI, 26 JANUARY, 2019 (GPN): Suresh Nair has more than 30 years of hard core airline top management experience in all areas of the Airline business. Presently General Manager-India,Sri Lanka & Bangladesh for AirAsia involved in  the International operations of the airline in this region. Has been with AirAsia since 2009 with the start of Indian operations of the airline.Played a key role in starting operations to 9 stations in India for AirAsia.Was previously Vice President Commercial for the boutique airline-Paramount Airways.Starting my airline career with Cathay Pacific as Manager-North India and Nepal moved on to take up the challenging role of General Manager-North India,Nepal and Pakistan for Jet Airways when Jet expanded from 1 online  station in North India to 10 stations.Went on to set up the Delta Airways operation to Dubai in 2001.An expert in start up airlines with a very special interest in Low Cost Airlines.

Suresh was previously Vice President Commercial for the boutique airline-Paramount Airways. He started his airline career with Cathay Pacific as Manager-North India and Nepal moved on to take up the challenging role of General Manager-North India, Nepal and Pakistan for Jet Airways when Jet expanded from 1 online station in North India to 10 stations. He went on to set up the Delta Airways operation to Dubai in 2001.

Speaking to GPN in a Candid Interview Suresh said, I did my MBA from Cochin University School of Management Studies  and then got a Chevening Scholarship to do Advanced Management at Manchester Business School. I am married to Sumi Nair and  have 2 sons Gautam doing his Doctorate at Yale and Arjun working in Mexico. I was a speaker at Aviation Outlook Africa in 2011 and at Aviation Outlook Asia Pacific in Sydney in 2009.

We started with Tiruchi in 2008, which was one of the 13 cities where ASEAN carriers could operate without bilaterals. Our major boost happened in 2009. We started with Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram and then Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Delhi and Mumbai were operated by AirAsia X.

It was not totally tied to ASEAN as we had to fly to the metros – and those were not covered by this agreement. If you see the cities we operate to – Jaipur, Vizag, Amritsar… the idea is to bring in tourists. We fly into over 135 destinations in the Asia-Pacific and we promote all the 13 Indian destinations all over our network. It is in our interest to bring in as many tourists as possible so that there is a balance in the business.AirAsia is a leisure- and travel-focussed airline. We have shown that destinations can be built by airlines.

What role has the Open Skies agreement played?

As regards ASEAN, it has been a bonus for us. If I am not mistaken, Tiruchi has had the biggest growth in air traffic in terms of the number of flights and passengers carried. We built it – and then others like Tiger Airways, Malindo wanted to fly. Now it is a buzzing airport. When we started, there was one international airline, now we fly four times a day into Tiruchi from Kuala Lumpur.It was the same in Kochi. There were west-bound flights to Dubai and other places, but nothing going east. We still remain the only carrier to operate from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur three times a day into Kochi.

How has The AirAsia Group positioned the Open Skies the best among all the ASEAN carriers ?

AirAsia has positioned itself as the ASEAN carrier in India for all practical purposes. Now 13 cities in India are connected to the smallest points all over ASEAN with a one-stop connection. You can fly from Kochi to Vientiane in Laos via Kuala Lumpur. Nobody can give ASEAN like AirAsia can because of the connectivity that we have. I think it has benefited both.