{"id":803,"date":"2008-10-21T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-21T10:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianaviationnews.net\/avicareers\/?p=803"},"modified":"2008-10-21T10:26:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-21T10:26:00","slug":"sweet-sounds-of-success-for-chimes-aviation-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/2008\/10\/sweet-sounds-of-success-for-chimes-aviation-industry.html","title":{"rendered":"Sweet sounds of success for Chimes Aviation industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:180%;\" >T<\/span>he recent crisis in the aviation industry may have been a dampener for the growth plans of aviation training academies, but Uday Punj managing director, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.caaindia.com\/\">Chimes Aviation Academy<\/a> (CAA) is in no mood to slow down, having flown quite some distance.<br \/>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our first exposure to aviation was way back in 1993 when Punj Lloyd bagged the Hazipur pipeline project. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when we bought a helicopter for our managers and engineers for efficient and speedy work,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Punj.<br \/>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. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We found that all the academies in India are mom-and-pop operations.<br \/>Moreover, there was hardly any institute with good infrastructure back-up, so we decided to build a corporate academy with international placements in tow,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he adds.<br \/>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.<br \/>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Punj.<br \/>In March last year, CAA came into operation. It offers DGCA approved integrated courses like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCommercial Pilots License\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (CPL) and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPrivate Pilots License\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcChimes Flying Programme.<br \/>A 12 months course, it enrolls 120 students a year with an annual fee of Rs 22 lakh. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Punj.<br \/>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Presently our main challenge is getting the reduction in sales tax on fuel,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Punj. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also pushing for expansion of the academy overseas.<br \/>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If an IIM(A) student can find placements in MNCs abroad then why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pilots from an Indian institute find placements in international airlines,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. By the second quarter of 2009, Punj plans to run tourism based aviation services.<br \/><span style=\"color: rgb(153, 0, 0);\">20\/10\/08 Monica Behura\/Economic Times<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent crisis in the aviation industry may have been a dampener for the growth plans of aviation training academies,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}