Aparna Pendse, Managing Director, Varun Air Services, actively involves herself in strategy and expansion segment and oversees the operations of the company. She started her career with business travel. After a stint in frontline sales with leading multinationals like BCD Travel and HRG Sita in various managerial capacities she went on to head JV Travels part of Wallem Shipping Group. After serving as Director on board of a midsized business travel company she started Varun Air Services.. Aparna Pendse completed her B.Sc. in Physics and Diploma in Tourism Management from University of Mumbai and recently accomplished her M.B.A. from Southern North Hampshire University. Aparna is passionate about writing. Her first story book was chosen for A.V. Varty Puraskar Nasik and she was one of the few recognized writers who won an award winning Unicef radio serial. She has also won a price from Poetry Society for English Poetry in 2001.
Varun Air Services Pvt Ltd is a corporate travel company started in April 2007 with the vision to build a world-class travel organization and technology firm that will simplify the business travel. The company aims to help travelers by giving them the most optimum travelling experience and abridge their complexities.
Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Aparna Pendse says, “Our vision is to build a world class company that can cater to Indian Travellers in any part of the world.”
Give us a broad overview of the corporate travel space.
Corporate Travel is in consolidation mode. A lot of thought is being given to travel policy and usage of technology seems to be the essence of the time
Who is your target audience? What benefits do you give clients?
We target corporate Houses with sizeable travel budgets. We offer customized service bouquet and develop solutions to reduce timeframe needed to procure visas, insurance, find right kind of hotels etc. We design our negotiations with third party suppliers to suit client needs. The Visa division of the company prepares an accurate document wherein the customer’s visa gets processed in minimum required timeframe and zero rejection rate. Varun Air Services also provides TrawellTag, Carbon Footprint Calculator, Go-Mobile feature, The Lounge Pass, Post Paid international SIM Card. Lastly our end to end technology tool offers complete control and transparency
Brief us on the company's initiatives in the corporate travel industry
We have launched first ever end to end enterprise solution for travel process of Corporate Houses that have Rs.03 Crore and above. This technology tool aptly named “933 Unrestricted“
What is 933 Unrestricted all about?
In the complete technological architecture of any organization Travel was the only process so far where major tasks were left open for manual intervention by outside vendor that is Travel Agent. 933 allows the travel buying business house to have complete control over reservations, rates etc and also ensures complete transparency .In 933 as ticketing, billing, MIS everything is auto generated without human interference.
What are your immediate Plans?
At present, our expansion plan is to perfect existing tool more and vie for bigger market share
Brief us on your financials. What goals have you set here?
This year, our top line target is Rs1bn. We are looking at further organic growth
What is the vision for your company?
Our vision is to build a world class company that can cater to Indian Travellers in any part of the world.
What is the shareholding pattern of the company? Any plans to sell stake?
At present we are closely-held company within the family. Yes, we are looking at a stake sale.