Meet The Team: Noida International Airport (DXN)

Our new Meet the Team feature will bring the people and personalities within an airport’s aviation development to the forefront. This week we speak to Kiran Jain from Noida International Airport (DXN), India.

Tell us a bit about yourself and the team

I am Kiran Jain and am the Chief Operating Officer at Noida International Airport (DXN), India. Noida International Airport is the upcoming greenfield airport in Delhi-NCR region of India, developed by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), a 100% subsidiary of Zurich Airport International AG. The airport will enhance connectivity to and from Delhi NCR and North India.

I am responsible for air service development, cargo business, airport operations, security and corporate relations functions of the airport. In the last 28 odd years of my corporate career, I have breathed aviation in various sectors such as airport route development, airline commercials, government relations, marketing, sales and analysis in India and USA. With me is Surabhi Rana who heads the Air Service Development at NIA. She has expertise in route development, commercial business, tactical marketing, and stakeholder relationship management at major airports in India. Together we bring multifarious experience of 40 odd years across geographies that is helping us in building a robust air service development strategy.

What recent achievements are you most proud of?

We have recently received our three-letter IATA code and now Noida International Airport can be officially identified as DXN! We are working in tandem with various stakeholders to ensure the project delivery of our phase I with 12 million passenger handling capacity by end of next year. The encouraging news is that we have been able to gain interest of the airline partners and travelling community. We will for sure have many achievements closer to the airport commissioning.

What keeps you awake at night?

We are focused on delivering a project that is a confluence of Swiss efficiency and Indian hospitality and it is essential that this is included right from the airport design stage. And let me be frank, this is not that easy! We are entirely committed towards developing a customer-centric airport, with outstanding efficiency, digital enablement, and commitment to the minimal environmental impact. I strongly advocate two important areas, i.e. focus on customer experience (especially differently abled) and stakeholder consultation. Even in the current times, it is a challenge for the differently abled customers to travel without worries and we would like to bring a paradigm shift to this thought, and this needs new concepts and partnerships. The second area is stakeholder consultation which is very much required to ensure we and our partners deliver an “airport of choice” to the end customers, meeting their needs and expectations.

What is your approach to building and maintaining airline relationships?

We are quite clear in our approach – transparency in communication and understanding the needs of the airlines. This has helped us in building stronger relationships with the airline partners. In the journey of Noida International Airport till date, we have had multiple sessions to understand the requirements of the airline partners and incorporate that in the processes and the design. Key account management is another area that is helping us in working closely and efficiently with the airlines.

Describe your perfect vacation

I crave for SILENCE at the moment! The team and I are so occupied with delivering the airport that there is very little room for anything else - for now.  But overall, more than the planning that goes in creating a perfect vacation, what matters to me the most is to have the right company.

Kiran Jain                                                      Surabhi Rana

Chief Operating Officer                             Head-Air Service Development

[email protected]                             [email protected]