Jet set go

As stories go, this one — apocryphal or not — is a little gem. Naresh Goyal, the founder of Jet Airways, was in his early 20s when he pawned his mother’s gold chain and moved out of Delhi. He went to Mumbai and set up a travel agency there. And, along with his clients, he went places.

Goyal continued to soar, till he crash-landed last week. A little more than 25 years after he single-handedly set up the airlines and made a huge success of it, the founding-chairman was forced to step down from the board.

What is intriguing is that after all these years, Goyal is as much of an enigma as he was when he started Jet. Little is known about him, barring stray facts such as his fondness for Hindi film music and vegetarian food. What is known — or talked about — is his proximity to those who matter. He is on first-name terms with CEOs of international airlines and there was a time when he enjoyed such clout in Indian political circles that he was able to, rumours allege, tweak policies in Jet’s favour.

Originally from Punjab, Goyal, 69, lost his father when he was a boy. His mother sent him — the youngest of several brothers and sisters — to her brother in Patiala to learn the ropes of his business. Young Naresh learnt to handle the daily cash and tallied the books. He moved to Delhi, where he stayed in an office-cum-residence in Connaught Place — the Capital’s downtown area. And then, in the early 1970s, he set up his travel agency in Mumbai.

By the time he started Jet Airways, the agency was the General Sales Agent for over 10 global airlines including KLM, Singapore Airlines and Gulf Air, which was then the largest foreign airline operating in India.

Goyal was the uncrowned czar of the travel industry from 1974 to 1994, says Narayan Hariharan, who had three stints in Jet, including one as the senior vice-president in the chairman’s office in 2006-09.

But Goyal wanted more — and so Jet Airways was born in 1993. As Goyal had a standing in the industry, Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air invested in the new airline — which, as far as he was concerned, was a smart move.

This was a time when international flights landed in very few Indian cities. So, many of the passengers flying to Mumbai from the Gulf on Kuwait Airways or Gulf Air would automatically board a Jet Airways flight to their final destinations within the country. And Jet raked in the money.

One of the first private airlines to start in India, it soon became a popular name in the country — thanks largely to Goyal’s hard work and deep business sense. So engrossed was he in running the airline, he often joked, that his children — daughter and son — called him ‘uncle’ as he was hardly ever at home.

Suresh Nair, who joined Jet in 1996, recalls that Goyal was also the epitome of good service. There were many occasions when a stranger would buttonhole him somewhere and request him to get a Jet ticket confirmed. Goyal would take down the details and ensure that the passenger was contacted once the seat was endorsed.

“He was an empathetic listener. So he patiently listened to what anyone had to say. He was also sharp and incisive, with an ability to put his viewpoint convincingly,” Hariharan points out.

For years he ran the airline with two trusted lieutenants and a fax machine from a suite reserved for him at the Taj Palace hotel in Delhi. Old-timers recall that if Goyal was in the suite, he would answer the phone and made it a point to return the calls he missed.

Many highlight Goyal’s immense capacity to network, which helped him reach for the sky. He had learnt the importance of networking early in life; from the 1970s, he was a regular at all meetings of the International Air Transport Association, a global group of international airlines.

No one was greatly surprised, therefore, when the White House chartered Jet flights for the media party travelling with then US President Bill Clinton on his India visit. A few years later, the Japanese government too chartered a Jet aircraft to fly its visiting prime minister and delegation to Agra.

When he decided to start his own airline, Goyal was clear about one thing — that it would offer the best to its clients. He got the newest aircraft, the Boeing 737-400, hired a young crew, and served passengers a three-course meal, with those in business class dining in imported china. He hired personnel from the hospitality industry to provide the best services on board. Among them was his future wife, Anita, who too resigned from the Jet board with her husband on March 25.

But there were chinks in Goyal’s armour, the most significant of which, many say, was his sense of insecurity. He did not want more players to enter the market, which led to gross mistakes such as buying out the financially unviable Air Sahara. A series of developments — such as the advent of low-cost airlines, the rising price of fuel and the falling rupee — led to huge losses and defaulting of loans. Soon, Jet was sacking its employees and cancelling flights. There was little his powerful friends could do to help Goyal this time.

Fasten your seat-belts, his crew advised passengers, but the man himself had failed to buckle up.

Ashwini Phadnis