Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, who resigned as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Jet Airways, citing family reasons for the move, is set to join as the CEO of UK’s low-cost carrier British Midlands (bmi). Jet’s senior vice-president of the Americas, Nikos Kardassis, will be taking over as acting CEO effective October 15. In an interaction with Shashank Shekhar, Prock-Schauer said his resignation has nothing to do with the recent crisis in the country’s aviation industry. Excerpts:

You have observed the Indian aviation industry from close quarters. What’s your view on the ailing industry?

The major problem with India’s aviation industry is the rapid expansion of the domestic market. It just happened too fast which led to the overcapacity. Because of the overcapacity in the market, it automatically led to a decrease in yields. Now all the airlines are restructuring their models and the overall outlook seems to be improving. India will surely continue to grow.

What was the most difficult phase of your tenure as Jet’s CEO for six years?

It was when the economic slowdown hit the industry and we were all set to go with our expansion plans. Everything was set up for expansion but the whole market went down. And that coincided with the massive increase in fuel prices. In those times our loads were between 60-70 per cent but input cost had shot up.

It was actually a phase of tremendous change that we went through. Out of the six years, we (Jet) had four profitable years. In the last two years, we did incur losses, which were mainly driven by worldwide economic downturn and the negative operating environment for airlines globally. But compared with other big airlines in India, our competitive position and performance is much better compared to the others.

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