| While
refusing to disclose the size of the revenues that aircraft branding generates,
AD principal sales & marketing officer, Samyukth Sridharan explained “We
currently have 19 A380’s and 20 ATR’s. Branding an aircraft is not as
simple as it seems. We have to take into account the cost of paints, the additional
weight of the paint added and the additional fuel required for that, well taking
all these into account, if I were asked to offer a single aircraft – I’d
charge Rs 1 million a month for an A380 and half that amount for an ATR, do the
math yourself, and this is just the outside of the aircraft.”. Gopinath
and his team are looking at all avenues for generating ancillary revenues and
growing them from the current 9% to between 25-30% of annual revenues over the
next three years. They are looking at web-enabled insurance, excess baggage, which
currently brings them around Rs.35-36 per passenger on a average, in-flight shopping,
and in-flight catering. “I think in-flight sales on Air Deccan contribute
about 12% to Café Coffee Day’s present revenues,” informed Sidharan..
AD receives around 24,000 calls daily for bookings. At the end of the call, our
people offer ICIC credit cards or loans, this too will help generate ancillary
income for us,” he added. | 
