A brief about the cultural aspect of Air deccan airlines

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Mr. Birat Singh Khadka who encourage us to complete this report and
enhanced our knowledge about organizational behavior in corporate level on Airline’s sector. We
would like to thank Himalayan College of Management (HCM) for providing a heterogeneity
environment among our group members.
Similarly, we would also like to thank each of our heterogeneity friends who are from different
background remaining in a common platform MBA.

3. CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................4
1.0 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 5
1.1 LOW-COST AIRLINES MODEL IN INDIA .................................................................. 6
1.2 AIR DECCAN – THE FIRST LOW-COST AIRLINES (LCC) IN INDIA .................. 7
2 FINDING AND ANALYSIS ABOUT AIR DECCAN............................................................ 8
2.1 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE PROFILE.................................................................. 8
2.2 LEVELS OF OC (VISUAL ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE)...... 9
2.2.1 ARTIFACTS AND BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................ 9
2.2.2 NORMS AND VALUES.............................................................................................. 10
2.2.3 UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS ............................................................................... 10
2.3 HOW IT STARTED/SUSTAINED.................................................................................. 11
2.4 TYPES OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN AIR DECCAN.................................... 11
2.5 SWOT ANALYSIS/PEST ANALYSIS ........................................................................... 12
2.6 IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION........................................................... 13
2.6.1 POSITIVE IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION ...................................... 14
2.6.2 NEGATIVE IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION.................................... 14
3.0 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 15
3.1 CHALLENGES AHEAD.................................................................................................. 15
4.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................. 16

4. ABSTRACT
Air Deccan is the India’s first low-cost airline. It has become one of the nation’s largest airlines in
less than four years. They have done this through a combination of innovation and outsourcing.
More importantly, from a strategic perspective, it gives powerful evidence to how technology can
be a key factor in changing industry dynamics, even in what were once considered stable or
conservative industry. While Air Deccan was able to capture the imagination of the public and
demand grew rapidly for its services thanks to its throwaway fares, the airline itself was plagued
by operational problems as it sought to aggressively expand its network and fleet size. In the
process, it developed a reputation for delays, poor service, and lack of reliability. The Air deccan
make a business model with “no-frills, low-cost” air carrier business model including Offering low
fares to stimulate demand.

5. 1.0 INTRODUCTION
In the modern era, the airline industry is contributing a lot to the growth and development of the
global economy and over the past few years, the travel and tourism industry has witnessed
significant growth and airlines can be termed as the most prominent supporter of the entire industry
(Ulak, 2020). In monetary terms, it can be expressed that the aviation industry contributes 3.5% to
the total gross domestic product of the world and the contribution of the airlines industry can be
also understood by the fact that every year more than three billion people make use of the services
provided by the industry (Shaw, 2016). Apart from this, the industry also contributes to economic
growth indirectly by creating potential employment opportunities. However, it can be critically
argued that irrespective of the fact that the industry is contributing significantly to economic
growth; these days, there are several challenges that the industry is facing. The problems have
started creating several obstacles in terms of achieving higher growth and objectives. For example,
the companies operating in the airline industry are facing issues linked with management of human
resources and has further resulted in affecting the way in which services are delivered to customers
where the rate of employee turnover is increasing, and this can be considered a major threat in
long term growth and sustainability of the airline companies (OECD, 2020). In the present
scenario, human resources are considered as the vital asset for any business enterprise. Effective
management of staff members, changing technology at frequent intervals, Frequent training
programs, marketing, and promotion activities, offer high quality services at low cost etc are some
challenges in current airlines industry (Ulak, 2020).
Asia-Pacific had considerable growth in the global aviation industry. The growth of the aviation
industry is mainly attributed to the growing aerospace industry of the region. Further, the
increasingly crowded airports and busy flight routes in major economies of the region including
China, India, and ASEAN countries had also contributed significantly to the aviation industry
growth (OMR, 2020). According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), it is
estimated that for air travel, approximately 817 million new passengers will be added to account
for a total of 1.3 billion by 2035 in China (OMR, 2020). The civil aviation industry in India has
emerged as one of the fastest growing industries during the last three years. India has become the
third largest domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to overtake UK to become the
third largest air passenger market by 2024 (IBEF, 2020).The Indian Government is planning to

6. invest US$ 1.83 billion for development of airport infrastructure along with aviation navigation
services by 2026 (OMR, 2020). On December 21, 2020, IndiGo announced that it has collaborated
with Urban Drive car rental company to offer self-driven and chauffeur driver services across 60
Indian cities (OMR, 2020).
In 1995, Gopinath started Deccan Aviation Private Limited (DAPL), a private helicopter
charter company, providing helicopter services for company charters, tourism, medical evacuation,
offshore logistics and a host of other services (ICMR, 2020). DAPL soon emerged as a pioneer in
helicopter tourism in India. While serving tourists, the company encountered demands for flights
to many smaller tourist places (ICMR, 2020). Air Deccan's business model was inspired by the
globally successful low-cost model pioneered by the US-based Southwest Airlines in the 1970s.
In the fiscal year 2003-04, the Low-cost airlines commanded a global market share of 25% and
their revenues had grown by 40% (IBEF, 2020). Air Deccan did not provide any food on board.
However, it sold snacks and water bottles on its flights for a price. Serving and consumption of
alcohol were not permitted.
1.1 LOW-COST AIRLINES MODEL IN INDIA
low-cost airline, based on the model popular in the US, Europe and other parts of Asia started in
India in late 2003. The value proposition of low-cost airlines had been faster connectivity due to
direct flights from one point to another at a cheaper rate. A low-cost airline did not issue a printed
ticket. Instead, the passengers booked their journey on the Internet. A number was generated, and
the passengers used this at the check-in-counter along with his/her identification document to get
a boarding pass. This procedure reduced 80% of ticketing costs that would otherwise have been
spent on printing and processing the paper ticket and a commission for the travel agents (Adhikari,
2018). Low-cost airline did not issue common tickets for connecting sectors. Passengers purchased
separate tickets for each destination. To remain cost effective, no food items or beverages were
served on the flight, and magazines were not provided. This enabled the airline to reduce the space
for food and offered an increased seating capacity. The seat pitched in the aircrafts of low-cost
airlines was brought down, to accommodate more passengers. There was no separate executive
class, and the flight did not have any lounge. Benefits were not offered to frequent fliers. Low-cost
airlines used secondary airport to reduce landing, parking and maintenance cost. The airline also
charged the advertisers for the advertisements they carried on the headrest covers. Though these

7. were the basic features of a low-cost airline; it was the choice of the airline company whether to
remove all of these in the flight or keep some of them for better service to their passengers
(Adhikari, 2018).
1.2 AIR DECCAN – THE FIRST LOW-COST AIRLINES (LCC) IN INDIA
Air Deccan was a unit of Deccan Aviation Private Limited (DAPL) which was
India’s largest chartered helicopter Service Company. DAPL was formed by Captain Gopinath in
1995 and targeted a niche in Indian aviation. The helicopter service launched by DAPL targeted
company charters, tourism, offshore logistics and other such services. The managing director of
the company, Captain Gopinath, was an ex-army man with experience in a variety of areas
including multi-crop farming, sericulture, and agri-consultancy (Adhikari, 2018). Air Deccan
started its operation as the first low-cost airline on 24th September, 2003. In the beginning, it used
seven ATR aircraft and operated largely along routes that connected tier-II cities with metros in
the southern part of India. Soon, however, they increased their fleet, expanding to include 70 seat
airplanes as well as airbus. While Air Deccan began its operation in South India, it soon spread its
operation across other regions, with plans to fly to about 60 destinations in the future. They began
with low fares and consciously lowered them continuously. Air Deccan flights did not provide
frills like on-board catering, business lounge, upper class seats, promotional points etc. In fact, the
Air Deccan brand image made it clear that this airline was meant to make air travel accessible and
affordable for the common man. The company adopted a 'lean-and-mean' approach to staffing and
aimed to maintain a low aircraft-to-employee ratio. Air Deccan attempted to do everything in-
house, including operating their own reservation system. This ticketing system helped the
company save $3 - $4 per passenger (Adhikari, 2018). In a press meet, Gopinath stated: With the
common man in mind, we aim to provide an easy gateway to our ticketing procedures. We are the
first airline in the country to provide e-ticketing facility to our customers. An Air Deccan ticket on
any route is just a phone call or click away. Easy payment procedures further 'simplify our process.
We intend to connect smaller towns with the metros. For starters, we are touching important
destinations in South India.” Air Deccan started with the low-cost model in mind, and analysts
believe that the company had 3 types of aircraft: it started with 40 seaters, moved on to aircrafts
that seated 70 and finally went on to using an airbus. They also flew to about 60 destinations which
was an unexpectedly large number for low-cost carriers.

8. 2 FINDING AND ANALYSIS ABOUT AIR DECCAN
2.1 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE PROFILE
We have found that the Air Deccan A Simplifying Air Travel in India has successfully
attained the right balance between the mean and goal orientation, as it emphasizes over the
importance of accomplishing the goals, and meanwhile encourage employees to take risks only if
they are worthwhile. The company shares strong commitment to embedding ethics and integrity
into its business operations. The internally driven organizational culture has enabled the
organization to use its ethical brand image as a tool to get a strong competitive edge over rival
firms. The creative and innovative work behaviors are promoted by rewarding the employees with
various monetary and non-monetary rewards, but the empowerment and autonomy is limited due
to organizations’ inclination towards the strict work discipline. the diversity is promoted, and
differences are appreciated.
Organizational culture dimension Characteristics
Innovative Culture ➢ Only Economy Division
➢ NPR 1.6 Rupees ticket scheme
➢ Commitment to the Common Man, Innovations
in operations and marketing, innovations in
distribution management and staff flexibility
Aggressive Culture ➢ No free food cultures
➢ low-cost air travel and created the first low-cost
carrier subcategory in Indian aviation
Outcome-Oriented Culture ➢ Lower employees per aircraft
➢ Non-refundable ticket
➢ Creative and innovative work behaviors are
promoted by rewarding the employees with
various monetary and non-monetary rewards.

9. Organizational culture dimension Characteristics
Stable Culture ➢ Power was gradual shift from the centralized to
decentralized organizational structure, the top
management openly communicates the
importance of adopting an ethical attitude while
responding to the market needs.
People-Oriented Culture ➢ Paid initial training to staff
➢ Providing employees with necessary coaching,
mentoring and guidance to accomplish the
assigned goals.
➢ Discouraging the employees from making
overtime a common norm in the workplace,
Motivating, and training the employees to
manage the stress and time
Team-Oriented Culture ➢ Diversity is promoted and differences are
appreciated, company promotes a professional
attitude among its employees
Detail-Oriented Culture ➢ The internally driven organizational culture has
enabled the organization to use its ethical brand
image as a tool to get a strong competitive edge
over rival firms, Employees are not punished for
sharing new ideas and taking risks.
2.2 LEVELS OF OC (VISUAL ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE)
2.2.1 ARTIFACTS AND BEHAVIOUR
According to (Tandfone, 2020), defines an artifact as a “man-made object”, which wide sense of
anything we can create, including “symbols, machines, industrial processes, social organizations,
social movements”. In this sense, an artifact is anything that we can design in the very large sense

10. of the word design, defined as devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into
preferred ones (Tandfone, 2020). The artifacts of Air deccan as been shown in figure 1.
Fig 1: Artifacts of Air deccan airlines
2.2.2 NORMS AND VALUES
Air deccan airlines provide a value of faster connectivity direct flights from one point to another
at a cheaper rate.
2.2.3 UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS
➢ Air Deccan nurtured a social aspiration of serving the flying needs of the common man
➢ HR create a initiative to reward meritorious employees through promotions to supervisory
and base management positions or as trainers.

11. 2.3 HOW IT STARTED/SUSTAINED
Air deccan lunched its Low-cost airlines (LCA) in India on Sep 2003. Captain Gopinath captured,
developed and leveraged this potential and launched India’s first low-cost airlines. Air Deccan was
incorporated as a unit of Deccan Aviation Private Limited. In August 2003, Air Deccan began its
operations with a single ATR18 aircraft, on the route between Bangalore and Hubli.It targeted the
people who are Frequent business travelers and train traveler (those who travel in A/C coaches).
It offers no-frills services and for ticket booking customers can call the 24 hour call center or e-
ticketing. It tie-up with retail outlet where the customers easily book their tickets. It launches a
Dynafares (First come first basis) services. Air deccan promoters promoted its services through
print and outdoor media. It’s Tagline was simplify. Though it’s competitors were “UB group”,
Wadia groups “GO”, “Visa Airlines”, “Air-India Express”, “Royal Airlines” etc but the airline
strives to be commercially successful by reducing operating costs, improving aircraft utilization
and increasing load factor (the percentage of filled seats) and yield (revenue earned per ticket).
2.4 TYPES OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE IN AIR DECCAN
As indicated by (Harry, 2020), The organizational culture represents the specific pre-defined
policies that provide guidance to the employees and give a sense of direction. It is a complex
system that comprises the shared beliefs, values, and assumptions, and governs the employees’
behavior within the organization. These underlying assumptions, beliefs and values contribute to
the unique and distinct psychological and social environment. Type of organization culture of air
deccan is Clan culture and Market culture:
In case of Air Deccan, A Simplifying Air Travel in India, the company promotes a professional
attitude among its employees. The diversity is promoted, and differences are appreciated. The Air
Deccan shows the importance of cultivating a professional organizational culture to remain
successful in a highly diversified environment. In Air Deccan there are open communication lines
and the organizational culture is flexible and well-diversified. The competitive advantage of the
Air Deccan A Simplifying Air Travel in India also lies in its ability to manage a highly diversified
workforce. The open cultural system has enabled the Air Deccan A Simplifying Air Travel in India
to ensure a high information flow and leverage the knowledge, skills and competencies of
employees from diversified backgrounds. The analysis of the Air Deccan A Simplifying Air Travel

12. in India’s organizational culture reveals that the company is more closely related to the disciplined
work culture with vertical hierarchy and tall structure. It means the management withholds the
decision-making authority, and directly controls the employees’ work behavior. The creative and
innovative work behaviors are promoted by rewarding the employees with various monetary and
non-monetary rewards, but the empowerment and autonomy is limited due to organizations’
inclination towards the strict work discipline. The Air Deccan truly understands the value of its
human capital, and hence prioritizes the employee satisfaction and motivation.
2.5 SWOT ANALYSIS/PEST ANALYSIS
According to (Mindtool, 2020), SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats, and so a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of a business.We
can use SWOT Analysis to make the most of what we have got, to our organization's best
advantage. And we can reduce the chances of failure, by understanding what we are lacking, and
eliminating hazards that would otherwise catch you unawares. Better still, we can start to craft a
strategy that distinguishes we from our competitors, and ,so compete successfully in market
(Mindtool, 2020).
PEST Analysis (political, economic, social, and technological) is a management method whereby
an organization can assess major external factors that influence its operation in order to become
more competitive in the market (kenton, 2020). As described by the acronym, those four areas are
central to this model. It is believed that PEST Analysis was first introduced under the name ETPS
by Harvard professor Francis J. Aguilar. In the 1967 publication "Scanning the Business
Environment," Aguilar presented the economic, technical, political, and social factors as being
major influences on the business environment (kenton, 2020).
The SWOT Analysis and PEST Analysis figure has been shown in figure 2 and figure 3
respectively.

13. Fig 2: PEST analysis of Air deccan airlines
Fig 3: SWOT Analysis of Air deccan airlines

14. 2.6 IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION
2.6.1 POSITIVE IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION
The positive impact of Air Deccan culture can include:
➢ Increased efficiency of business processes.
Air Deccan’s HR division focuses on recruiting young professionals with little work experience
straight from their university campuses. They screen all prospective employees’ resumes
thoroughly, conducting in-depth interviews to ensure that candidates’ academic qualifications and
personal strengths and skills are a good fit with their job profiles.
➢ Reward system
Air Deccan HR initiative was to reward meritorious employees through promotions to supervisory
and base management positions or as trainers.
Air Deccan also values and fosters an intrapreneurial spirit among its employees.
➢ Build an employee strength
There are performance incentives for employees, which motivate them to perform well. For the
convenience of employees, a helpdesk has been set up that takes care of activities such as payment
of utility bills, buying movie tickets, etc. There are monthly birthday parties for employees, which
inculcates a sense of belonging among them.
2.6.2 NEGATIVE IMPACT OF CULTURE IN ORGANIZATION
The negative impact of Air Deccan culture change can include:
➢ Less experienced professional
While the innovative HR provided opportunities to freshers and relatively less experienced
professionals to work for an airline, with the success of the concept, their aspirations for higher
pay and better job conditions increased. The low cost positioning and the demanding working
conditions came in the way of realizing their aspirations. Hence they left to join other airlines or
pursue other careers. Air Deccan faced severe problems of attrition. This put Air Deccan on a

15. continuous congregation path. It couldn’t cultivate its own base of competencies and sustain the
enterprise.
➢ Air deccan Food buy policy
The company appeared to have missed the opportunity to innovate around processes that would
make the ‘common man’s first-time flying experience’ cherish able. It was observed that the
customers did not buy the expensive food items on sale in the flight. Or they economized by buying
less. Despite not allowing outside food, the passengers were seen opening their tiffin boxes and
consuming the contents. As a result, the company could not exploit the potential for additional
revenue fully.
3.0 CONCLUSION
After doing the study of whole culture of Air deccan. we see the organizational culture
shows that the successful business organizations do not adopt an extreme cultural orientation but
try to find the right equilibrium to develop the effective culture. Air Deccan a Simplifying Air
Travel in India has successfully created a strong organizational culture that is deeply embedded
and widely accepted by its highly diversified workforce. We found Air deccan always creates
something new with more creative and innovative ideas for low cost, cheap travel, Ticketing, seats
in aircraft, no meal service, Advance ticketing before 90days etc.to bound the customer.
3.1 CHALLENGES AHEAD
Indian Airline Industry was one of the fastest growing Airline Industry across the world during the
last decade. However, skyrocketing fuel prices, economic slowdown, slashed corporate travel
budgets over the last 3 years has forced all Indian Airlines to rethink their business model so from
our perception Air deccan must change its business model. Excess capacity build-up and poor
infrastructure continue to plague the industry which is also experiencing a decline in passenger
traffic at the same time. Improving energy efficiency of engines, developing infrastructure,
increasing regional connectivity will have a positive impact on the industry to revive the Air
deccan on Indian sky.

16. 4.0BIBLIOGRAPHY
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in-India-Organizational-Culture.
IBEF. (2020, 08 22). https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-aviation.aspx.
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kenton, w. (2020, 09 02). https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pest-analysis.asp.
Mindtool. (2020, 09 01). https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm.
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