Chartering new flights

Under Ghulam Naqshband, Le Passage is going places

Ghulam Naqshband

At 80, most people would want to call it a day. Not Ghulam Naqshband. Sitting upright in a well-appointed office in Delhi's Hauz Khas, Naqshband is counting ways to up his company's Rs 45-crore turnover. "I don't waste time watching movies or sports...I believe it is important to do business with integrity."

The grandfatherly advice comes from one of the patriarchs of India's travel industry who worked with Sita Travels for close to 35 years. As the company's managing director, Naqshband came to be associated with winning awards, opening the French and Italian markets and the international conference business.

Instead of sitting back and counting his laurels post retirement (when Sita got sold to Kuoni in the Indian travel industry's largest acquisition yet), Naqshband took up the chairmanship of a new "destination management company" two years ago.

Le Passage To India was floated in 2002 with an initial investment of a modest Rs 10 lakh. Its launch could not have been more badly timed. Indian tourism was still battling the aftermath of 9/11 and Sars.

Yet, in its very first seven months of operations under Naqshband, it recorded a turnover of Rs 9 crore. Next year (2003-2004), this grew to touch Rs 45 crore taking the new company right into the big league of India's top five travel operators. This year, the aspirations are higher.

Naqshband is confident of touching Rs 65 crore thanks to forays into some new markets. The business of charters, for one.

For starters, the company kicked off its charter business last month. Till May 2005, Le Passage, in collaboration with Goa Tours Ltd, will manage a series of charter flights from Russia to Goa, grossing around 180 passengers per week, totalling 5,000 visitors from Russia in the coming season.

The charter service is expected to generate a turnover of Rs 5.5 crore for the season. And that's just one destination. Along with Goa, Le Passage is also selling the money spinning Golden Triangle (Delhi-Jaipur-Agra) to the Russians.

Another tie-up with a Russian tour company will help bring in 80 holiday makers a week, totalling 1,250 in the season, translating into a turnover of another Rs 3 crore.

The numbers are impressive as this was not really the market that Le Passage set out to tap. It became successful so soon because of Naqshband's strategy of opening up the hitherto untapped market: the luxury tour segment.

Apart from wooing the upmarket European travellers, the company was able to revive the US market through strategic tie-ups and has since become the foremost luxury tour operator in the country. "The luxury market is easy because we have no competition there," Naqshband concedes.

"But general business cannot be ignored either," he adds justifying the charter business foray. On the cards are flights between the UK and Thiruvananthapuram. Le Passage has already set up an office in the city.

Naqshband may be happy juggling numbers but is not a significant investor in Le Passage. A person may have a bigger stake "if he has children to pass on the business to". For the happy bachelor, it was never a winsome proposal.