Indian American helps Boeing redefine aircraft trading

Monday, 09 December 2002, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Indian American Dinesh A. Keskar has helped aerospace giant Boeing redefine the concept of aircraft trading. "This year we have traded 50 aircraft - at a time when there are some 1,900 aeroplanes parked on the ground" due to a spate of U.S. airlines going bust, said the 48-year-old Seattle-based president (Aircraft Trading) of Boeing. He is also the company's senior vice president for sales. Before that, he helped cement a relationship between Boeing and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) that has help generate business worth $50 million in the last nine years for India's aircraft major. Not too bad an achievement for a man whose guide while he was writing his doctoral thesis was Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. Aircraft trading, or buyback, is distinct from leasing where airlines strike deals with other carriers for taking planes for specific periods. "An airline wants to buy 10 new aircraft but wants to retire six. If it tries to sell these aircraft it faces a price disadvantage. So we take them back, refurbish them and put them back on the market," Keskar told IANS. He was here with the U.S.-India Business Council's (USIBC) executive committee for a series of meetings in Delhi. "Aircraft trading helps airlines manage capacity growth and enables them test the waters without locking up too much capital. It also gives them a clearer picture of what their used planes are worth," Keskar contended. The classic example of aircraft trading is the purchase by Singapore Airlines of 77 B-777s over a five-year period for $13 billion. In turn, the airline will get $1 billion for the 17 Airbus A-340 aircraft that Boeing has bought back. "So what do we do with the aircraft? We help airlines augment capacity at half the cost," Keskar said. Keskar's is the quintessential example of a man of modest means making it good thanks to the American dream. Born in 1954 in Rajkot in Gujarat to a chemistry teacher father and a homemaker mother, Keskar obtained a degree in engineering from the Vishweshwaraya Regional College of Nagpur in 1975, topping his class and winning a gold medal. He then headed for the University of Cincinnati for a combined masters and doctorate which he completed in three years against the five years that most others take. "I didn't have much of a campus life. I figured that if I was there for what I was there, I might as well get along with it rather than distract myself with other things," he said after much coaxing about how he did it. His research for his doctoral thesis took him to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) facility at Langley, Virginia, where he came into contact with Armstrong. "He became my mentor and guide and still remains a good friend," said Keskar of the former U.S. astronaut. He then worked as a research associate at NASA for a year - for which he got paid - before joining Boeing in 1980. "I got my first job without even writing out my resume," he said rather modestly. "The first five years were spent in the realm of pure science in the research department. Then I decided to do my MBA." After completing that in 1987, he was inducted into Boeing's marketing team, where his association with Indian aviation first began. Elevated to director (sales) in 1990, he became the president of Boeing India in 1995. He returned to Seattle in 2000 to take up his current assignment. "In those 10 years (1990-2000), Boeing had a 100 percent market share in India. We cemented a $1 billion deal with Air-India for six 747-400s and 20 737s for Jet Airways. This apart, the numerous private airlines that were around at the time - Modiluft, Damania, NEPC - all leased Boeing aircraft. It was very satisfying." It was during Keskar's Indian tenure that the deal with HAL was struck. This, over the years, has seen HAL produce doors for the B-757, cargo doors for the B-767 and uplock boxes (that join an aircraft's tail to the fuselage) for the B-777. HAL scientists also wrote a digitised programme for the B-777, the world's first aircraft to be completely designed on a computer without the traditional blueprints. Keskar is particularly upbeat about the latest project - generating three-dimensional drawings from old blueprints of the B-747 as a prelude to modifying the superstructure of an aircraft that was designed in the 1960s. "In partnership with Boeing, HAL can build on its own technologies," Keskar contended.
Source: IANS
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