moca launches

airsewa portal

aviation sector
regional
at inflection
connectivity
point
p 12

A IRBU
Z
and mobile app
p9

in india
p 22

OctOber-nOvember
2016

`100.00
(indiabased
only)

buyer

Volume 9 issue
5

www.spsairbuz.c
Om

A n E x c l u s i v E M A g A z i n E o n c i v i l Av i At i o n f r o M
inDiA

exclusive
Pat Breen, Minister of
St
at
e
for
E
m
pl
oy
m
en
t
an
d
S
m
all
Bu
si
ne
ss,
Ire

la
nd

RNI NUMBER: DELENG/2008/24198

Ireland
offers
avIatIon
leasIng

and more to
IndIa

An SP Guide PublicAtion

17page

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ExclusivE intErviEw

Ireland MInIster

exclusive

Irelan
d
offer
s
avIat
Ion
leasI
ng
and
mor
e to
IndIa
Ireland has
been a
pioneer of
sorts in
aviation
and its aircraft
leasing
industry has
set
benchmarks
in the world.
With expertise
in
aviation
leasing,
training,
education and
other

aviation
related
activities,
Ireland is
offering
business
opportunities
to India.
Disclosing
this to SPs
AirBuz in an
exclusive
interview
with Editor-inChief Jayant
Baranwal, the
Ireland
Minister of
State for
Employment
and
Small
Business, Pat
Breen, states
that the
two countries
have so much
to share.
Pat Breen, the Minister of state for Employment and small Business, ireland

Jayant Baranwal (JB): Could you

tell us how Ireland has reached
the peak in aviation and in how
much time?
Pat Breen (Breen): Ireland being an
island nation, there are only
two ways to get out, either by air or by
sea.
Our
geographic
location is such, the most westerly country
in
Europe,
airlines
en
route to Europe have to stop by. Airlines in
the
early
days
stopped
off in Ireland en route to Europe. Of
course,
the
early
pioneers
also stopped in Ireland, as in the first
Trans
Atlantic
flight
crossed
to Europe. Our history of being pioneer
in
aviation
is
something
special to us. Our airports started
gathering
momentum
in
Dublin, Shannon, Cork airports. So I suppose
this
has
come
from
a
number of entrepreneurs and pioneers in
aviation
and
I
go
back
to somebody like Dr Tony Ryan who

started
off
Guinness
Peat
Aviation (GPA). And then there is the
growth of Aer Lingus, our
national carrier. So we had a lot of
expertise
and
entrepreneurs
working with GPA. At one time in the
1980s, GPA was the largest
leasing company of aircraft in the world.
Back in the 1970s, flying and
aviation was quite expensive and
Dr Ryan had the vision to start this
company and he was joined by
a number of very dynamic and young
people who wanted to excel
themselves in the aviation sector, people
like
Michael
OLeary
who founded Ryan air. Out of
Guinness Peat Aviation came
Ryan Air which was called after Dr
Tony Ryan. Of course, Ryan
Air started as a very low-cost airline,
based
on
the
South-Eastern
model in the US. Low-cost was very
new at that time, a lot of the
traditional airlines had their cartel
charging whatever they liked.
In those years, to cross to the UK it used
to cost 400 pounds, today

PHOTOGRAPH: SP Guide Pubns

you can get it for as little as 20 pounds

each way that is what has happened with
competition.
That is how low-cost carriers have
made a big difference to us
and that model was copied by carriers in
Europe.
So
where
are
we
now? The Irish aviation business is at a
very
strong
point,
strong
not just in leasing. We lease over half the
aircraft
in
the
world
from
companies like GE Capital Aviation
Services
(GECAS),
Aercap
and various other smaller leasing
companies
and
of
course
Avolon which had Domhnal Slattery, a very
good
friend
of
mine
from
my own county who was the CEO. The
tradition
was
there,
the
entrepreneurship was there. Our other area
of
expertise
has
been
in the maintenance of aircraft and painting
of
liveries.
We
have
Shannon MRO, Shannon Aerospace and
they
are
doing
extremely
well. We have got very good skilled
workers. We get aircraft from
all over the world, for maintenance and
painting
livery.
Qatar
Airways, American Airlines among others get
work done here.
At the moment the aviation sector is
going
through
a
transition. We have Patrick from Shannon Airport
Authority
on
this
delegation. We have made that airport
independent. It operates on its own.
Shannon airport had the first duty free shop
in the world; the first Irish coffee was
made at the airport; and the first custom
free zone in the world is here. From this
point of view it makes us experts in
aviation. Aer Lingus is now part of the
International Airlines Group. We are a
small country it is difficult for a national
carrier to survive, so Aer Lingus merged.
In the 1990s and 2000, there were mergers
and consolidation of Lufthansa, AFI,
KLM, Aer Lingus, etc, with different
groups.

SPS AIRBUZ
Issue 5 2016 17

ExclusivE intErviEw

Ireland MInIster

"One Of the reasOns

fOr Our
industry tO Be
successful is due
tO the enlightened
gOvernment
POlicy and tO a very
Pragmatic
aviatiOn regulatOr."
As we come out of our downturn in
the economy and start growing again, we
find that we are one of the fastest
growing economies in Europe and
aviation is an important sector to grow. We
are strong in aircraft maintenance, leasing,
aircraft
parts,
software for aircraft. We have developed a
cluster for aviation in the Midwest region
of Ireland where Shannon Airport is and
companies are in the process of starting off new
aviation
related
industries there. We are here in India to
showcase this and to bond a friendship
and relationship between Ireland and
India which is practically a huge country,
needing connectivity.
JB: In what ways can you help
India?
Breen: There are a number of ways. We
are leasing a lot of airline companies. We
lease aircraft from Irish companies.
JB: What kind of support has
there been from the government to your airlines, to your
entrepreneurs as that could be
good benchmark for India?
Breen: First of all, government support
to
entrepreneurship
is
extremely important. In the area of science
and technology we have invested to train
apprenticeship, graduates and we have
encouraged our universities to link up with
aviation courses. This is how we are going
to move forward. We want Ireland to be a
centre of excellence for aviation and the
government is spending money on science
and technology, in university courses, and
also
encouraging airports, providing tax incentives, etc.

so also late night flights into

London. They have
revolutionised the
JB: What kind of tax incentives?
Breen: Tax incentives for aircraft to set
up
airline
leasing
companies, to set up maintenance and other
aircraft
related
companies.
We see that is important to grow, cluster
growth from both the US
side and the Asian side and that is why
we
are
looking
at
India.
We have invited the Indian Civil
Aviation Minister to visit Ireland
and see what we have to offer, not just
for the ICT sector but also
the aviation sector.
JB: You said today it costs 20
euros, does it allow profitability at such low fares?
Patrick from Shannon Airport
(Patrick): It does, because airlines
like Ryan Air and other carriers are
extremely
competitive, extremely price focused. We see
that happening in the Indian market as
well. What it means is that they look
very closely at all parts of their costs,
airport costs very aggressively, staff
costs very aggressively, and they take
each of these slices of the pie and
squeeze each of them and that has this
result.
Breen: The airlines will make up this
with expensive seats as well with last
minute bookings.
Patrick: If I have to travel tomorrow I
will not get the 20 euro fare.
Also I will get coffee for 20 euro and my
suitcase
will
be
charged.
Breen: Also the fare during certain
times of the day are different,
early morning flights for business people
going out are not cheaper,

18 SPS AIRBUZ Issue 5 2016

www.spsaIrbuz.com

whole costs and brought down costs. There is

fierce competition on the Irish routes to
London. It is not just with the two airlines from
Ireland. We have British Airways flying in and
also a number of smaller airlines flying into the
regional area as well as UK.
Patrick: This has big impact on airports
and
the
many
incumbent airports are being challenged. Many of
the
airlines
have
started flying into these smaller secondary
airports which maybe
50 miles (80 km) away and the consumers
have been educated. Breen: That has put
challenges on Shannon Airport to bring
down their airport costs too.
JB: The airports are much friendly
in terms of costs...
Patrick: They have got to be, they are not
monopoly suppliers of
airports.
Breen: They have to depend on other
sources of revenue, besides airlines, leasing
of shops, charging for car park, etc, it is a
combination of issues.
Patrick: You were asking how Ireland can
help India. Some of the ways we can help is
bring leasing business, can help aircraft availability through leasing to the Indian market.
Some of the other areas we are strong in is
aviation education, technical training,
training engineers, pilot training and so on.
JB: Quality training is crucial, zero
compromise in training is a must.
Breen: We get crew training from all over
the world. We are a centre of excellence in
that area. There is very successful company in Dublin which makes seats for
aircraft, also software for aircraft. We want
to help out in countries as well and to grow
and it is an area we are developing and
formulating a policy.
Patrick: One of the reasons for our industry
to
be
successful
is
due
to the enlightened government policy and to a
very
pragmatic
aviation regulator. Our aviation regulator has been
very
supportive
of
the
industry. Safety is absolute top priority and
they
are
commercially

aware and they help the industry. For

example, India is planning to
build a civil aircraft under Make in India
and
Ireland
could
help
in
many ways and the Irish regulator can help
in
certifying
the
aircraft.
Breen: Our skills are very important that is
why
we
are
so
successful
in aircraft maintenance. Even though we are
not
a
low-cost
economy,
we have a lot of airlines coming to us because
of the good job we do.
JB: How is the business aviation
doing in Ireland?
Breen: Business aviation is small. We
have a number of operators but they are
small.
JB: Does it contribute to your
regional connectivity?
Breen: It does. For regional connectivity,
we are subsidising. The government gives
the industry subsidies to fly in to western
region, north-east, south-east. We fly
smaller turboprop aircraft into those
regions.
JB:
What
kind
of
aircr
aft?
Patri
ck:
Like
the
ATR
72.
Breen: We have to maintain regional
balance and ensure that these regions are
not disadvantaged. So we have the PSO
subsidy and it is quite expensive for the
government, but it is good for regional
development. sP
To watch the full
interview, log on
to:
http://www.spsairbuz.co
m/news/?id=718