Pune: This startup redefines how Army personnel travel
One of the challenges of the military is that vacations are often given at the last minute, making it difficult for many Javanese to get train tickets. On the other hand, seats on thousands of airlines in the country are empty every day. Pune-based startup udChalo fills the gap by taking soldiers and their families from train to plane. In that first year, ud Chalo flew 1,200 soldiers. Today, they fly about 160,000 rupees of Army personnel each year. “We wanted to democratize our customers’ air traffic. As a strategic approach, we focused on non-executives who travel by regular train. This will satisfy this niche consumer. One of the biggest challenges we faced for is the inertia of switching from rail travel to air travel. The second biggest challenge was cost. Booking last minute tickets is very expensive and affordable. It was a good price. To tackle the second challenge, we introduced a whole new concept of discounted fare to the army and helped submit it to LTC (Leave Travel Concession). I booked a flight ticket using the train ticket refund directly to fill the cost gap. This is how we turned rail travelers into airlines. The price difference is negligible, “said Ravi Kumar, CEO, who co-founded udChalo with another colleague who is an engineer at Army Institute of Technology in Pune. Targeting only the military, veterans, and their dependents, udChalo has nearly 10 million viewers. The brand’s revenue model is based on the convenient collection of fares and the receipt of rewards from airlines to achieve their goals. The company is developing a membership model that can provide customers with additional services and a variety of facilities. One of udChalo’s recent initiatives was “Sarhad se Ghar Tak.” This is a pilot project to drop customers from Pune Airport to the hometowns of most soldiers such as Satara and Kolhapur. The
pandemic caused great losses to the aviation industry when travel stopped altogether. However, when air traffic recovered, udChalo was able to contact the customer base, as military movements were an essential move. “The army was first vaccinated and the journey began immediately. We have confirmed that the best possible arrangements have been made for them … the world is still working on the impact of unexpected new variations, but we are supporting the army and possible. We are determined to provide the best possible service, “Kumar said. However, many non-executives believe that airlines are executive-only. “We give a lot of offline presentations to give confidence that traveling by plane is as easy as traveling by train. For questions like” How much luggage can I carry? ” to answer.
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