时间：2022-03-20 06:12:45
Neil Mills might well be the freshest expat off the boat and he is showing it. Six weeks after arriving in Delhi, Mills is still living out of a suitcase, even as he waits for his wife and two young children to join him. The 39-year-old veteran of sorts in the airline business took up an offer in mid-October to become CEO of SpiceJet, the low-cost carrier now owned by the promoter of Sun TV, Kalanidhi Maran.
He arrived as a part of the change in ownership at the budget carrier and has spent the last few weeks getting used to doing business in India. Perhaps it is not that easy — Mills rescheduled his interview with this writer three times, the last time due to an unscheduled call from the civil aviation ministry.
When we finally meet, Mills is multi-tasking. He has made time for this interview, is eyeing messages on his handheld and keeping harried colleagues at the door — he does step out once to meet a senior manager. Mills speaks in short, staccato sentences, laced with humour. “Passengers are treated like self-loading freight,” he says of the low-cost airline industry.
The cost accountant-turned-airline-executive is no newcomer to chaos. While he had worked with some manufacturing companies in South Africa, in 1997 Mills got an offer from British airline easyJet, then a fledgling low-cost outfit trying to juggle five routes with four planes and haemorrhaging money. “Financially, they were in a mess … it was a disaster.”
Mills had planned to stay with easyJet for six months, turn the airline around and move on to his next job, but ended up staying for a dozen years. He rotated through all the roles in the airline (barring sales and marketing) and learnt quickly on the job, growing to become easyJet’s Director of Procurement when he left in 2007. By then easyJet, founded by Greek Cypriot serial entrepreneur Stelios HajiIoannou, had 174 planes and was doing well for itself. “Neil has the ability to be at the right place at the right time,” says Richard Roth, CFO of Abu Dhabi-based luxury charter operator Royal Jet, who worked with Mills for 12 years at easyJet. “easyJet was a great ground for him to do the unexpected.”
His next stop was another airline start-up, flydubai, this time as its finance chief. Mills was part of a fourmember team mandated to get the low-cost airline, run by Emirates, off the ground. This time, his role was short-lived. “I wanted to be there for three to four years and become CEO, but I was approached by the previous shareholders of SpiceJet as a part of their sale process,” he says.
Mills has begun work at SpiceJet just as the aviation industry in India is showing signs of reviving after two years of turmoil. Observers believe that Mills has many qualities required for the job. “Neil has a strong record of delivering good results and a keen strategic mind,” says Catherine Lynn, Planning Director for easyJet. “With his skills and experience in (the) low-cost sector, Neil is a strong leadership asset for SpiceJet.”
Mills has reconciled himself to the intrinsic burdens of the low-cost sector. Aviation fuel costs are high, construction of airports is behind schedule and taxes, he contends, are unfairly high. He is clear what needs to be done.“There has to be consistency in everything you do so that you can control costs,” he says. “There should be no waste in the system.”