On a wing and a vote prayer

By M H Ahssan

Is it a whirly-bird or a plane? It’s the cash-rich Indian political league flying high this poll season

Forget recession, it’s boom time for helicopter and aircraft charter companies. The ongoing poll season will see top leaders of all parties criss-cross the country over the next three months and the charter industry is looking at raking in upwards of Rs 200 crore.

Chopper and small plane rentals have shot up. The costliest private planes that cost about Rs 3 lakh an hour have been hired from ‘friendly’ industrial houses for top leaders.

Helicopters, that offer unparalleled connectivity with the ease of landing anywhere including playgrounds or roads, are predictably in maximum demand. The rates for choppers, say industry sources, is upwards of Rs 60,000 per hour. They can go up to Rs 2.5 lakh for twin-engine ones, if some leader desperately wants this flying machine on a tight day.

There are two other categories of flying machines in demand: Small turboprop planes that can do up to 600km in less than two hours; but the most expensive ones are the jet aircraft hired only for top leaders like Sonia Gandhi and L K Advani. “Helicopters represent 60% of the total demand and will do several thousand hours of flying in poll season. Small turboprop and jet planes will be 30% and 10% of the total demand,” said Manav Singh of Club One Air, one of the pioneers of this field.

As a result, big, small and sarkari players are all having a field day. John Kuruvilla of Deccan Charter — a JV of Captain Gopinath and Vijay Mallya — said the company has 10 choppers. “As of now, four are on election charter and from April 1, six will be flying politicians. Four of the 10 choppers are with long-term clients and can’t be pulled out,” Kuruvilla said.

The Bell 206 can seat four passengers, fly them to a range of 500km and is going for Rs 75-80,000 an hour. Deccan’s faster Bell 407 is going for Rs 90,000 to Rs 1 lakh an hour. The five-seater twin engine ‘Squirrel’ has gone for a cool Rs 1.1 lakh per hour, he added.

Chopper operators say the demand has risen in past one month. Parties who held talks with chopper firms last month but didn’t finalise terms are now coming back with at least 20% higher offers to get these machines. Jyoti Gupta of Monarch Aviation that currently has three Enstrom-480 B choppers said: “The demand is very good and no number of choppers would be enough with any one at this moment.”

Apart from political parties, government agencies are also hiring choppers. “In areas like Lakshadweep and Andamans, ballot boxes have to be flown to islands,” said R K Tyagi, chief of state-owned Pawan Hans.

While the mid-segment of small turboprop planes is being used for flying up to 600km, the most expensive remains the jets being hired by top leaders. “Sonia and Advani will be using the latest Falcon 2000 that is being hired from a big south Indian company,” said sources. These flying castles in air cost about Rs 3 lakh an hour. All in all, the aviation industry — reeling under slowdown and high oil prices — is heaving a sigh of relief.