Airline salesmen to take off with laptops

BANGALORE: Imagine, there is no office to go to. All you have to do is to work from your laptops on the field, market your airline; no internal meetings to attend, just work from a virtual office and get back home. Yes, this is the next revolution in the Indian aviation industry, thanks to the fierce fare war and low cost operations becoming the key word.Kingfisher Airlines, Spice Jet (earlier Modi Luft) and Air Sahara are all set to adopt the new trend in the way the Indian skies operate. While Kingfisher Airlines is set to launch its services from May end, Spice Jet has plans to commence operations from May 15 or sometime in June, according to industry sources. The new players are recruiting "faceless" sales executives, who will communicate through emails and mobile phones, with no interface with customers. Air Sahara too is switching over to the new mode. Kingfisher will have one manager, with all sales executives reporting to him/her. The sales staff will visit travel agents and corporates, going around the market. This will be different for Indian Airlines, which has a city booking office in Cauvery Bhavan on Kempe Gowda Road, and Jet Airways, which has an office in Unity buildings. The Sahara group, which has tied up with a South African major to sell laptops, will also go the virtual way, sources say. While Air Sahara has kept its plan under wraps, a source says the aim is to give every sales executive a laptop so that he/she can be connected to the marketplace, get hooked to the inventory and if seats are available, confirm the booking immediately. "It is not official as yet." The way the airlines' offices will function will now change completely. While Kingfisher and Spice Jet will follow the footsteps of Bangalore-based Air Deccan and sell only e-tickets, the customer will not get to really interact face-to-face. One has to wait and see how quickly the Indian traveller adapts to the new situation, an official comments. Kingfisher Airlines and Spice Jet, both low-cost airlines, will, however, have counters at the airport. "This will be the only place where our staff will interact with customers," says another official. Says Stanton Chase vice-president Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, who has been involved in some recruitment for Kingfisher Airlines: "Online ticket booking and online marketing will be the key in future. There will be a paradigm shift in the way airline executives will work in the future in India. They will now concentrate on talking about being feeder airlines offering international connection to overseas operators. An example would be to give a connecting flight for an international passenger from say Bangalore to Visakhapatnam." The virtual world is now taking over completely. However, an official working with one of the major carriers wonders what would happen to customers who want to complain about the services.