No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings, goes the old saying. And few have drawn more motivation from the wisecrack than Dominique Gass, General Manager, Air France. Looking after operations in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives, Gass has embarked on a skyrocketing growth with measure emphasis on Indian middle class business fliers. Unlike Airlines, which caters to tourists, Gass has successfully harnessed the vast potential of Indian diaspora segment and already contributes to 90 per cent of the traffic load between India and France. According to latest estimate, the Indian aviation market is expected to grow at 5-7 per cent annually. It means sky is the only limit for Gass, who with his business acumen knows how to take off his ventures. Of course, there are bottlenecks like poor airport infrastructure, equipment up gradation and inconvenient timings. Nonetheless, Air France under the stewardship of Gass has adopted practical approach in solving some of the nagging problems.

Along with introducing its new General Manager for India, Air France had also announced its new flight schedule for the winter season. This challenge to increase capacity during the winter season (October -April) was enthusiastically taken up by Gass. The airline has changed its configuration by operating a 400-seater Boeing 747 aircraft in place of (250 seater) airbus aircraft which will translate into 45 per cent increase in the capacity. However, Boeing 747 operations will be limited to the winter period only. The winter schedule will include daily flights from Paris-Mumbai-Paris and Paris-Delhi -Paris. What is more, the 747 aircraft will be well equipped with new Air France products. There will be a new business class with separate flat beds, which means there will be 20 to 27 per cent of more space. But there will be no first class, as it will only have business and economy classes.

The airline is looking at new gateway cities in the country and is exploring the possibilities of entering the south Indian market. Therefore, in south, Air France is looking at Chennai, Bangalore and also Hyderabad. Gass is very confident of the India market as it offers possibility to increase flights. Along with India, the airline is focusing on the emerging markets like China and Brazil. By having tie-up with Air-India and Indian Airlines it has helped frequent fliers save valuable time. A member of Skyteam, Air France is looking for further tie-ups with Delta and Alitalia to strengthen its position in India and Asia. Air France under Calmettes has also been instrumental in bringing to its fold the benefit of two-way business between the two countries. The airlines operates a daily service on the Paris-Delhi-Paris and on Paris-Mumbai-Paris, the frequency is six-times-a-week. In order to improve facility and services, Air France introduced Through Check-in facility at 25 Indian airports. Keeping an eye on ever-growing Indian middle class and the booming IT business between India and Europe, the Airline is upbeat to provide customised services to its clientele depending on their individual needs.

Air Frances that flies to more than 191 destinations in 85 countries has been trying, in recent years, to augment its Asian market. With Gass at the helm, Air France is all set to take a larger pie of the Indian sky. However, company officials said that they are not interested in India's open sky policy as that is only short-term. "The open sky policy is not the way we work. We work on a permanent policy. A policy that is commercially viable and fixed with a long-term vision. We are not against the policy but it has to have a vision.