In 2005, when two virtually unknown businessmen set up an airline and gave Airbus its single largest order for 100 aircraft, sceptics had a field day. After all, in an industry in which Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways ruled the skies and the flamboyant Vijay Mallya had debuted, few expected an airline with unfamiliar pedigree to take off. But IndiGo did take off, and in style, thanks to the efforts of its low-profile promoters Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangawal, a non-resident Indian based in the US.

Bhatia, the hands-on founder, is a travel industry veteran of sorts. He is the managing director of InterGlobe Enterprises, a multi-billion dollar enterprise that has evolved from a humble travel start-up founded by his father Kapil Bhatia in 1964. So what has Bhatia achieved to be ET's Entrepreneur of the Year? Well, for starters, he has founded a business that has redefined the term 'budget airline' for the Indian market by offering a low-cost product that essentially does not mean low quality.

Indi-Go gives the huge untapped mid-segment market of travellers an airline they can fly in with a reasonable budget, with the efficiency and on-time precision that its fullservice counterparts find tough to match. And yes, the airline that reaffirmed last year in a chic ad campaign that 'being on time is good' also makes money — an extraordinary feat in an industry dotted with bruised bottom lines and sack loads of debt. Helping Bhatia execute his strategy is a six-member executive committee, which runs all of InterGlobe Group businesses, represented by aviation, hotels and technology heads.

"Much of IndiGo's success is because Rahul empowers people and also because he has an entrepreneurial gut that is unparalleled," says IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, who has seen Bhatia working from close quarters for over 12 years, from the time the seeds of the IndiGo business idea were sown. Bhatia followed up his big bang order of 2005 with another order for 100 aircraft worth $15 billion in June this year at the Paris Air Show. This time, few doubts were expressed.

"Bhatia's business has turned gold for him because of his extreme professionalism; and it is this professionalism that has guided him through despite very fierce competition from Jet Airways and Kingfisher in the growing years of IndiGo," points out Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, India and Middle East, who knows Bhatia for close to 18 years. Such professionalism also spells profits.

Economic Times