FLYPOP
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FLYPOP’S LOW-COST
BUSINESS MODEL
“We will offer an unbeatable value for money
service for customers, particularly those in the
VFR segments. Our ticket pricing model will
be fair, transparent and innovative. Flypop
promises the lowest average fares in the
markets we serve. This is thanks in part to high
load factors and the fact that our startup
will utilise more affordable mature
A330-300 aircraft leases.”
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“ Put your customer first and build
a flexible yet profitable model”
ABOUT NINO
Frustrated by the high cost and long flight
times involved in visiting family in India,
Flypop CEO and founder (and former
British Army Officer and aeronautical
engineer), Navdip Singh Judge (Nino) first
explored the idea of a UK airline serving
India with direct low-cost flights in 2003.
The air services agreement between the
UK and India at the time made it impossible
to obtain any flight slots at Heathrow or
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140 MARCH 2020
even to gain permission to fly to India’s
second cities.
In the following years he was instrumental
in bringing Lotus back to F1 in 2009, where he
worked with Tony Fernandes, group CEO of Air
Asia, before moving on to a career in London
and then taking on Flypop full time in 2017.
The Flypop management team has a wealth
of experience from companies including British
Airways, Emirates, Ryanair and Lotus F1.
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MANAGE DEBT
“Debt is, in most cases, a necessary part of running a
business, especially in the beginning. Disruptors such
as Airbnb started small, proved their model, and then
scaled rapidly. Starting small and being targeted allows
a new business to tinker with its model to ensure it is
profitable, to adapt to market preferences, to fail fast
and change strategy. Small means agile. Once a model
is successful on a local scale, companies can add new
services or destinations using the same approach,
adapting to the market and customer desires
to create an experience modelled around
customers, not the pre-existing
business plan.”
GREEN SCHEME
“We’ve developed an environmentally friendly
business model that makes it easy for
passengers to offset their carbon emissions by
purchasing the carbon credits on their behalf
– effectively planting one tree per passenger
including reforestation projects in Scotland
and the South Asian countries it will fly to.
It might not be the full carbon offset, but
it’s a tangible, verifiable offsetting.”
ADVICE FOR STARTUPS?
“Focus on your customers, listen to what they
want, need and desire, and be prepared to
change based on shifts in the market. If you are
just starting out, focus on a small geographic
area and create a business model that is both
popular and profitable, keep costs low, and only
take on as much debt as you need.
“Put your customer first and build a flexible
yet profitable model. Those who can
achieve this will go far; those
who don’t will fail.”
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WHY FLYPOP?
The ‘pop’ in Flypop is derived from ‘people
over profits’, the airline’s business mantra of
delivering socially responsible travel. Flypop’s
‘caring capitalist’ business model aims to give
51% of its net profits to charities working in the
communities it plans to serve.
“It’s people first, where those people are our
passengers and employees,” says Judge.
The airline will also offer family
and business-convenient
schedules.
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