Sweet sounds of success for Chimes Aviation industry

The recent crisis in the aviation industry may have been a dampener for the growth plans of aviation training academies, but Uday Punj managing director, Chimes Aviation Academy (CAA) is in no mood to slow down, having flown quite some distance.
“Our first exposure to aviation was way back in 1993 when Punj Lloyd bagged the Hazipur pipeline project. That’s when we bought a helicopter for our managers and engineers for efficient and speedy work,” says Punj.
After a decade-and-a-half, Punj decided to study the Indian aviation sector extensively and after dropping the idea to start an airline business, he zeroed in on running a pilot training academy. “We found that all the academies in India are mom-and-pop operations.
Moreover, there was hardly any institute with good infrastructure back-up, so we decided to build a corporate academy with international placements in tow,” he adds.
With an initial capital investment of Rs 30 crore, the firm bought its first fleet of eight single and multi-engine Cessna 172 R aircrafts, an 11,000 sq ft airfield at Dhana in Madhya Pradesh.
“We visited many academies in and outside of the country, and then built a model based on the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), a government-based pilot training,” says Punj.
In March last year, CAA came into operation. It offers DGCA approved integrated courses like ‘Commercial Pilots License’ (CPL) and ‘Private Pilots License’ (PPL). It also offers customised short-term programmes like Multi Engine Rating , Instrument Rating , License Endorsement and Hours Building for CPL and PPL under the ‘Chimes Flying Programme.
A 12 months course, it enrolls 120 students a year with an annual fee of Rs 22 lakh. “We plan to enhance our fleet size to 18 in a phased manner by this year. We are targeting a turnover of Rs 35 crore this fiscal. By 2010-11, our revenues should touch Rs 135 crore,” says Punj.
“Presently our main challenge is getting the reduction in sales tax on fuel,” says Punj. He’s also pushing for expansion of the academy overseas.
“If an IIM(A) student can find placements in MNCs abroad then why can’t pilots from an Indian institute find placements in international airlines,” he says. By the second quarter of 2009, Punj plans to run tourism based aviation services.
20/10/08 Monica Behura/Economic Times