Kingfisher Airlines to dive into education sector

Posted: Feb 14, 2008 at 2327 hrs
Pune, February 13 Kingfisher Airlines is planning to leap into the education sector. There are plans to start a Kingfisher University which will cater to the needs of the service industry. The university will offer a full time MBA course in aviation and also some courses in hospitality and retail management.

“The process has begun to start a university, but it will take another three years to start the activities,” said Kunal Vasudeva, project head, Kingfisher Training Academy. “There is an ever growing demand for the aviation sector. In the next five years, as the industry grows, it is predicted that there will be dearth of manpower. To bridge the gap between demand and supply, creation of skilled manpower is a necessity,” he said.

“We have started the training academy as a first step. Our ultimate aim is to create an IIM of the service industry,” said Rita Gupta, brand adviser of kingfisher training academy. “The courses which we now run are certificate courses; but there is a real need to have management degree courses in the service sector. We are definitely looking at to start such courses in aviation, retail and hospitality industry,” she said. “The other advantage is, we are in the industry and we know its needs. Accordingly, we can be able to design the courses,” she said.

“As of now there are four universities in the world which offer MBA course in aviation. These four universities are in the UK, the US, Australia and Dubai. The courses offered are very expensive. When we start our course, we will try to keep the fee structure such that it will be in the reach of common students,” said Vasudeva. “The formalities for having recognition for the deemed university are to be completed which will take its own time. We have also not decided about the place as to where will be the campus,” he said.