Aviation India: Careers

It all started with a pseudonym in the college magazine. KS Kohli signed off as Frankfinn in his early writings just because he felt the word sounded nice. Later, when he tried to register his first company in that name, authorities initially rejected it saying the name did not sound Indian. It was the clippings from the old college magazine that eventually got him the registration. Thus in 1993, Mr Kohli started Frankfinn Medico Infoservices with Rs 40,000, borrowed from a friend.
Mr Kohli was attracted to the aviation industry soon, especially as the government adopted a liberal policy. Frankfinn gave up medical data business and started providing flight attendant training. It also got renamed Frankfinn Aviation Services.
He started a seven-day basic cabin crew training. His team toured across India conducting the training sessions. The response was very good and so were the placements. The main office was in Janakpuri, Delhi.
He soon set up a chain of training centres and Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training was born. The unit set up its first centre at Andheri in Mumbai. The curriculum was modified to suit the need of the hospitality, travel and aviation industries and the duration was extended to one year. Today, the network has 117 centres in 95 cities. It has also leased an Airbus A300 to impart real-time training.
Frankfinn’s students have been placed in national and international airlines and also in hotels. Best known is its tie-up with Air Deccan, which Frankfinn forged in 2006. Under this arrangement, Deccan hires cabin crew from this institute exclusively.
The Rs 250-crore company plans to start a low-cost airline Air Frankfinn by end 2009 for which it aims to get funds from the capital market with an IPO.
21/09/07 Mahul Brahma/Economic Times