Getting back to my start as a full time employee of Air Mauritius, I enlarged our accommodation at the Roosevelt Hotel from a single room to a 3 room suite.  

Next, I called George Papamoros who was, at that time, the Sales Manager - Canada for Kuwait Airways.  George was going through a rough time as Kuwait Airways had appointed a Palestinian as an additional Sales Manager - Canada and it was quite clear that the writing was on the wall - George’s days were numbered.

I asked George if he would be interested in a change and, if so, would he like to work for Air Mauritius.  He said he would and we went through the terms of the offer that I made.  I told him that he would work out of his home as, for the time being, I needed to keep expenses down. I also told him that he could hire an assistant who would take care of reservations and ticketing.

I was delighted when George accepted the offer.

Meanwhile, we recruited Rajiv Sarna as our Res/Tktg. agent for the NYC office - and I sent both him and George Papamoros to Mauritius to get acquainted with the product that we would be selling and at the same time, learn MK’s reservations procedures.

When George came back, he interviewed some persons and shortlisted a couple of them for me to meet.  I flew to Toronto and we decided to offer the post of Res/Tktg. assistant to a young lady who had good credentials and experience.

Back in NYC, I appointed the Desley Group to handle our advertising and P.R.  I had met Bob Desley during my Kuwait Airways days and he had left a good impression upon me.  It was a small and yet efficient Organization and seemed ideally suited for limited requirements.

And so, we had a soft opening of the Air Mauritius North American offices and started full time work in May of 1988.  We had what I assume, our share of teething problems particularly with the accounting of our payables and receivables, which had our Accounting Department in a panic. 

The Internal Auditor, however, assured the Chairman that the monies banked by us were about equal to the value of the tickets that we had issued and that there was no reason to be unduly concerned.

Following upon my meetings with the Internal Auditor, I hired a firm of Accountants to prepare our Sales reports and at the same time, take care of our taxes payable to various agencies.  

While all this was going on, I requested the Finance Director to “bond” our staff as they were handling tickets and MCOs, plus cash and checks.  He never answered my telexes despite a number of reminders and we suffered the consequences in 1993; a subject I will speak of in a later Post.

The Tariffs Department had given us Net Fares from Europe gateways to MRU and also between MRU on the one hand and JNB and SIN/HKG on the other.  We entered into agreements with PanAm, TWA and Air-India for transatlantic prorates and with Cathay for the Pacific routes.  Our best agreement was with Virgin who gave us excellent prorates not only to LON but also to JNB.  Our Tariffs Superintendent came back with congratulations for what he called a “killer” agreement. 

Shortly after we had settled down, I received a call from Sir Harry Tiruvengadam, our CMD.  He said that Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the Prime Minister of Mauritius, was visiting the USA shortly and that he would be accompanied by Sir Binhod Bacha, the Home Secretary and Harry himself.  The total group would include the wives of all three gentlemen.  

Harry asked me to meet him in Washington, DC and then accompany the team to Seattle for an official visit to the Boeing factory where two 767 aircraft were being assembled for Air Mauritius.  He also stated that the Mauritian ambassador to the USA and his wife would join the group traveling to Seattle.

I learnt that the Government officials were booked to travel DCA-STL-SEA by TWA and accordingly arranged complimentary tickets for Harry, his wife Elahi and myself for the same flights.

I had already met the Mauritian Ambassador on my earlier visits to Mauritius, but this would be the first time, that I met the PM, the Home Secretary and their wives.  They were extremely gracious and cordial towards me and I am glad to say that the 5 day stay in Washington and Seattle gave me a great opportunity to develop a relatively good relationship with the PM and the Home Secretary and I will comment on this in future Posts.

The visit to Seattle went off exceedingly well.  We were accompanied by members of the American Secret Service at all times and it was my first experience of traveling in an escorted convoy of limousines with outriders on motorcycles.  There was, however, one incident upon which I would like to comment.

The TWA flight from DCA to SEA involved a change of aircraft at St. Louis.  We left DCA around 8:30pm and were served peanuts followed by damp sandwiches and the Chairman’s wife, Elahi asked me if this constituted First Class service on U.S. airlines.  I told her that the airline had recently been bought by Carl Icahn who decreed that meal service on domestic flights be terminated on all flights departing after 8:00pm.  His attitude was that TWA was offering transportation services and not hospitality in for form of three course dinners.

During our transit at St. Louis, Harry and I managed to get some snacks which helped us land at Seattle on relatively full stomachs.  I am glad to say that Boeing’s hospitality in Seattle was excellent and the TWA experience was soon forgotten.

Both the Ambassador and I relieved sighs of relief when the Mauritian team left Seattle for London on their way back home.  The trip had gone off extremely well and I received a congratulatory call from the CMD on his return to Mauritius.  During this call, Harry mentioned that he did not want me to spend any time receiving or seeing of any Government official.  This included the Prime Minister who may on occasion, attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Harry emphasized that my time would be better served generating revenues for the airline and I am happy to say that with one exception, we managed to stay away from “meet and greet” events.

It soon became apparent that selling Mauritius in the USA was not going to be an easy task.  The average American did not know where Mauritius was.  I was very disappointed with the local office of the Mauritius Tourist Department.  They also represented other destinations countries and my personal observations revealed that they were promoting Belize in preference to Mauritius, particularly when callers asked for information on diving and snorkeling.

In fact, the local Seychelles Tourist offices was far more active than the Mauritius one and I soon realized that we had to work harder to sell Mauritius to the American public.

Our advertising and P.R. work did develop quite a few enquiries and we followed up with organizing individual and group FAM trips for agents and travel writers.  The trade writers trips were rewarding as we did get mention in travel journals, but the agent FAM trips were a dead loss.  Almost every agent had the following comment:

“Mauritius is a great destination with excellent upscale resorts and a lot of culture and sightseeing, BUT IT IS TOO FAR AWAY.  The Caribbean islands also offer sun, sea and sand and they are only 3 to 4 hours away.  Why would someone spend two nights to get to Mauritius?”

Very true and as we were constantly reminded, for the average American, a foreign tour can be summed up by the title of the movie - If it is Tuesday, it must be Belgium.

I lost a very dear friend a few days ago.  Ramesh Mahajan, whom I had known and grown up with from the young age of 13, passed away.  He had been suffering from cancer of the lung.  I was deeply saddened by his death but, at the same time, it was a blessing as he had been suffering for a very long time.  I had called him every week for the past one year to enquire about his health.  If I missed my call for any reason, he called back to enquired if all was well with me.

His memory brought into focus an incident that took place sometime in 1987/88.  I had introduced Ramesh to a person whom I have written volumes in some of my earlier Posts - Naresh Goyal.  They not only became good friends, but Naresh enjoyed the hospitality of Ramesh and his wife Asha whenever he was in New York.  

I was in India on one of my assignments with PanAm when I got a call from Naresh Goyal who happened to be in NYC.  He stated that he had been negotiating with TWA for their GSA in the USA and that the talks had progressed to such an extent that he (Naresh) was setting up an office in NYC to take reservations for bookings on TWA flights to India.

He once again urged me to join his Organization and, in particular, take over the GSA.  He also stated that he had hired my friend Ramesh Mahajan’s nephew and wanted me to come immediately and start recruitment of additional staff.  I declined his offer, as I had done on many occasions in the past.  There were many reasons including the fact that I had no respect for him.  He did not treat his staff very well nor was his “word” good enough.

I am glad that I turned him down because when I returned to NYC, Ramesh said that he was privy to a conversation between Naresh Goyal and Ali Gandhour (former Chairman of ALIA, Jordanian Airlines) in Ramesh’s apartment.  Ali Gandhour asked Naresh that what would be the next step in case the TWA GSA venture did not come through and, in the meantime, Mr. Sethi had left PanAm.  Naresh Goyal’s answer was - too bad.  I am sure he can look after himself.  The TWA venture died a stillborn death.

This reconfirmed my opinion of this person whom I had helped out in many instances, including the threat of a jail term.

Which brings me to two other instances regarding Naresh Goyal.  

In one of my very early posts, I had indicated that Naresh had become the GSA of Gulf Air in India, in addition to Kuwait Airways.  I had helped him in getting the latter appointment, but he managed the Gulf Air appointment on his own, having befriended  Adli Dajani, who was, at that time, GM - Commercial of the airline.  Their friendship lasted many years until Aldi retired from Gulf Air and took over as Secretary General of the Arab Carriers Association.

I met Adli at the IATA AGM in Montreal in 1991 when I was part of the Air Mauritius delegation and asked him how was our common friend?  Adli’s reply was, and I quote “I have lost contact with him.  The honeymoon was over the day I retired from Gulf Air and was of no further use to him”.

A similar situation took place with Ramesh Mahajan - when I spoke with him on one of my visits to Delhi, his comment was remarkable similar to that of Aldi Dajani - I have no more contact with him - he has not returned my calls.

That just shows his character and I am very glad that I rejected his offer to leave PanAm and join him in his ill fated venture with TWA, which never took wing.

The passing away of my dear friend James Mahajan, brought back the memories that I hav related above and I had to get them out of my system.  These are not happy memories but show that the world is made of many different characters.  Ramesh Mahajan and Naresh Goyal stood at two ends of a spectrum and I am proud to call the former a true and great friend.  He had been genuine in his relations with me in many instances.

I will get back to relating my progress in life in future Posts.

PanAm’s decision to reduce the published USA - BOM/DEL fare to $999 caused ripples in Air-India’s North American Headquarters in New York and the reaction was swift.  They issued a Press Release stating that the fare was illegal.  It so happened that a senior official of the Indian DGCA was attending an ICAO Conference in Montreal and he was persuaded to stop in New York on his way back where the AI R.D. was arranging a Press Conference with the objective of “officially” declaring that PanAm’s fare did not the approval of the Indian Government.

At this Press Conference, the DGCA representative stated that the Indian Government had not indicated its approval of the fare.  He did not, at any time during the Press Conference state that the Indian Government had disapproved it.  He then obliquely made reference to the possibility of a passenger traveling at this fare being subject to payment of a higher fare on disembarking at an Indian airport.  

In the meantime, I received calls from two prominent local Indian newspapers - India Abroad and News India of the impending Press Conference - asking for our (PanAm’s) views.  I also received a visit from a representative of a prominent Indian TV station.  The results of these calls and visit were as follows:

India Abroad asked me for a copy of the Bilateral Agreement between the USA and India, which we supplied.  They wrote an Editorial in the newspaper indicating that PanAm’s fare was legitimate and that passengers should have no fears of any retaliation on disembarkation.

News India stated that they would not cover the Press Conference if PanAm agreed to take a series of advertisements in their journal, which we rejected.  They did publicize details of the Conference. 

The TV Station decided not to attend the Press Conference.

There was some consternation among Indian travelers in the initial weeks following the Press Conference, but it subsided when they learnt that the Indian Government had not, in fact, taken any action against PanAm or its passengers.

Interestingly, I received a call from PanAm’s office in Bombay stating that Rajan Jetly, the M.D. of Air-India had expressed a desire to meet me on my impending visit to India.  Accordingly, I called on Mr. Jetley in his office and the first thing that I noted was that he had tried to change the the entire dark wooden panelling in his office by attempting to cover it with white paint, including his desk.  His so-called passion for this color, which had been also used on the outer walls of the Ashoka hotel during his tenure as the M.D. of ITDC, had now spread to the airline.  

I was saddened to see this attempt to desecrate such high quality furnishings, but refrained from making any comment.

Rajan Jetley tried to draw me into discussing the PanAm $999 fare but I told him point blank that I would be in violation of the anti-trust laws of the USA if I did so.  Nonetheless, he said that AI would be willing to go back to the pre-$150 cheque situation, if in turn, PanAm agreed to withdraw its fare.  

To show his bona fides, he asked Harish Malik, who had by then taken over as Commercial Director, to join our meeting.  At this meeting, he told Harish to instruct his R.D. in the USA that in case PanAm filed a new fare with the U.S. Department of Transport, to immediately make a similar filing matching the PanAm fare.  He should also, at the same time, stop offering the $150 cheques. Harish confirmed that he would issue such instructions immediately.

I made it very clear to both Rajan and Harish that I was not a party to any such decision/discussion as it would be a clear violation of the anti-trust laws.

On my return to New York, I informed the PanAm VP-Sales and Sr. Director - Atlantic of my meeting with Air-India.  I was told to do nothing.  However, PanAm did amend its filing raising the $999 fare to its previous level. AI did not match it; however, I received a call from one of Harish Malik’s lieutenants who told me to wait another few days.  I again made it clear that I was not going to be led into any discussion on the USA-India fares.

When, after another week, AI did not take any matching action, PanAm withdrew its filing.  By then, I had left PanAm and was now working full time with Air Mauritius and thus, was not privy to any further changes in the USA-India fare structure. However, the subject came up again after a few months when I received a frantic call from the AI Regional Director, which I will elaborate upon in a future Post.

After my meeting with Rajan Jetley in Bombay, I proceeded to Mauritius to attend the annual Sales Conference.  During one of the coffee breaks, the Chairman’s Secretary called me and stated that I should meet with Suresh Seegobin, the Commercial Director.

I met Suresh in his office and was pleasantly surprised when he stated “Inder, we have had a long honeymoon.  It’s time we got married”.  He said that the Chairman and he were very pleased with the revenue produced by North America and felt that it was time that we established a permanent footing in the region.  He asked me to present a proposal for consideration.

I told him that we should have a full time office in Toronto - a Sales Manager and a Reservations/Ticketing staff and that the New York office should be augmented by a full time Res/Tktg. staff.  He agreed and asked me to sit with the Accounts department and produce a Budget which I did.  He then offered me two choices for my remuneration:

1. A salary to be negotiated, plus rent allowance, plus a car; or
2. A similar salary (no rent allowance) and an incentive of 3% of net sales, plus a car.

I opted for #2 for two reasons.  Having worked for KU, we had lived in accommodation provided by the airline and upon leaving, had no roof over our heads.  I did not want a repetition and having now taken my own house, albeit on mortgage, I wanted the assurance that the house was our own, come what may.

Secondly, I was confident that we could generate much more revenue with two full fledged Sales offices and that the 3% incentive would in due time, more than offset the rent allowance.

I knew that I now had a real challenge on my hands considering that almost 95% of the Americans did not even know where Mauritius was. A “sea and sand” holiday was within 3 to 4 hours flying time away, in the Caribbean.  Mauritius meant two nights in an aircraft, but I felt that when sold in combination with other destinations, we “did have a shot”.  The budget that we agreed did give me optimism in achieving our targets and so, Manju and I left Mauritius for New York and I gave PanAm my two weeks notice of leaving them.

More on setting up the MK presence in USA and Canada in my future Posts.