Bhanu Choudhrie: Aviation Expert and Entrepreneur

Bhanu Choudhrie is one of London’s leading entrepreneurs, investors and philanthropists. He was named the 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Asian Voice Political and Public Life Awards and since graduating from Boston University and Harvard Business School his private equity investments have been both remarkable and highly profitable.

Early Years

After finishing his undergraduate degree in International Business and Marketing, Bhanu Choudhrie secured an internship at JP Morgan in the US, before relocating to London in 2000. In 2001, he helped form a family operated private equity firm named C&C Alpha Group and eighteen years later he remains the founder of an exceptionally successful company.

Mr. Choudhrie has helped grow the investments of C&C Alpha Group from hotels to restaurants, healthcare and real estate, with a particular success in both aviation and aviation schools.

Alpha Aviation Group

One of Bhanu Choudhrie’s passions, a subsidiary of the private equity firm C&C Alpha Group, is the rapidly growing Alpha Aviation Group Ltd. (AAG). The leading global provider of airline pilot training and the only ISO 9001:2015 accredited flight school in the Philippines, AAG has an unrivaled reputation due to its highly-qualified team of experts, modern facilities, state-of-the-art equipment and comprehensive training programs.

Mr. Choudhrie’s AAG offers a wide variety of complete training programs to both aviation newcomers and seasoned pilots. It has an exceptionally high graduate success rate and is focused on making sure every cadet achieves their dreams of success in their aviation career.

Aviation Acquisitions and Growth

Bhanu Choudhrie has also overseen several acquisitions in the aviation sector, the first of which was the acquisition of a small airline in India named Air Deccan. At the time of purchase in 2003, the low-cost airline was operating just one airplane within India and in just five years Mr. Choudhrie and the Air Deccan team grew the airline into a powerhouse offering 200 flights a day with capacity to transport seven million passengers annually.

However, during the recession the aviation industry was hit hard; the price of oil reached $150 a barrel, margins were tight, big institutional lenders were exiting the sector and passenger counts were on the decline. For Mr. Choudhrie, pursuing his vision for the airline in India was a great risk, both personally and financially. The habit of using the train to travel domestically, even for journeys that lasted one or two days was relatively entrenched in Indian society and many states also had limited airports and air strips. However, even in difficult economic times, Mr. Choudhrie’s investment in Air Deccan helped to catalyze growth in Indian aviation and allowed for growth and investments in a variety of businesses that support the aviation industry.

Solving Emerging Problems in the Aviation Industry

One of the biggest problems that Bhanu Choudhrie faced while transforming Air Deccan was finding qualified pilots. He realized that a shortage of qualified pilots was a “genuine obstacle to [aviation] industry growth.” The qualified pilot problem was a greater impediment to the industry than even economic factors such as the price of oil and in an interview with Wealth Finance Magazine he stated that in realizing the opportunities for aviation growth in growth in China, India, Japan and Southeast Asia as a whole, “by 2034, 558,000 additional commercial pilots will be necessary to service expanding fleets on a global scale “.

Mr. Choudhrie recognized that the current pilot training infrastructure was not the solution to the problem and that pilot training organizations with deep ties to the airlines and a proven track record could flourish in this type of environment. Today, commercial aviation in Indian is on the rise and his providing talented commercial pilots through Alpha Aviation Group helps these airlines realize opportunities in growth areas such as China, India and Southeast Asia.

The Creation of Alpha Aviation Group

As Founder at C&C Alpha Group, Bhanu Choudhrie formed a new company in 2006 and Alpha Aviation Group Ltd. (AAG) was born. The new subsidiary included a partnership with Prescient Systems & Technologies which is a subsidiary of Singapore Technology. The new venture sought to fix the growing shortage of qualified commercial pilots by providing state-of-the-art training facilities and solutions.

Mr. Choudhrie pointed out the value of a full-service approach within training academies like AAG, stating that the best opportunities are academies “offering an all-encompassing experience including end-to-end pilot training solutions where airlines can outsource the entirety of their training requirements”.

Starting a new pilot training facility requires diligence and the risk/return ratio is often not especially enticing for new investors. Mr. Choudhrie noted that “penetrating the market as a start-up is a more significant challenge” and finding the right niche as entrepreneur is important. Three out of five new ideas generally fail for investors and entrepreneurs, but Mr. Choudhrie felt strongly that creating a world-class pilot training facility that satisfied an important niche in the aviation sector.

Alpha Aviation Group Sector Growth

It is likely that almost half of the growth in the aviation sector will come from South-East Asia, with three billion people projected to move into the middle class and become budget-wary travelers. His investment strategy with AAG was based on supplying the necessary qualified commercial pilots to this region of the world in advance of a significant increase in demand for talent.

Bhanu Choudhrie and AAG have formed relationships with various commercial airlines such as Air Arabia, VietJet Air, Jet Airways, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines, as well as partnerships with Boeing and Airbus. Through these relationships AAA has grown into one of the premier Multi-Crew Pilot Licensing academies in the Asian-Pacific region as well as the Middle East with more than 800 qualified pilots graduating from their programs and now employed by the above mentioned carriers.

AAG Continuing to Invest

With the need for 284,000 commercial pilots in Southeast Asia alone by the end of 2019, AAG continues to invest in new state-of-the-art devices such as simulators and training facilities. Currently AAG is located in the UAE at Sharjah International Airport and the Philippines where it has recently invested in upgrading the training facility with new A320 simulators. The facility in the Philippines will hold four simulator bays which will take prospective students through B737 and Airbus A320 Level D Full flight, Fixed Base, A320 Integrated Procedure Trainer including Upset Prevention and Recovery Training as well as flight training on six new Cessna 172S G1000 basic flight trainer aircrafts.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Mr. Choudhrie is keen to offer support to other entrepreneurs and stresses that a key to success in new ventures is to “respect hard work and the value of money”. Growing up Bhanu Choudhrie worked several non-paying jobs, including both car valeting and a period working in a vintage car garage and these experiences have helped form his mantra on investing. His advice to up and coming entrepreneurs is surround yourself with hardworking and successful people. For Bhanu, to “be able to be supporting and working with management teams, CEOs and professionals on a day to day basis” gives him the opportunity to be exposed to new ideas and is a real secret to his success.

Other Ventures Created by Bhanu Choudhrie

One industry Bhanu Choudhrie is particularly well positioned in is real estate and hospitality. The recent opening of a hotel in Vietnam adds to an already impressive 2,000 rooms in 24 hotels owned by the Shanti Hospitality Group Ltd, a subsidiary of C&C Alpha Group. The subsidiary has partnered with Nira Hotels & Spa, Starwood Hotels, Hyatt Hotels and Nidra Hotels in creating “Exceptional Assets, Exceptional Brands” to convey the company’s ambition to be the best.

Mr. Choudhrie’s success is also bolstered by several profitable restaurants such as the Moti Mahal Indian Restaurant in Covent Garden. The restaurant was acclaimed from the get-go, winning the Asian Voice Political and Public Life Awards for restaurant of the year in 2010.

Mr. Choudhrie believes that China, India and the Asia-Pacific represent excellent growth opportunities for entrepreneurs. C&C Alpha Group is positioned in several ventures within the region besides aviation and even though Bhanu Choudhrie is based in London he continues to travel to Asia for up to two weeks a month to stay close to his investments.

Other Ambitions & Philanthropy

Another addition to the Choudhrie portfolio is in helping to fund middle scale Bollywood productions. Through analysis of the capital flows for both large and small-scale productions, Mr. Choudhrie discovered that a disorganized financing structure was largely leaving middle scale productions out of the loop and sought to improve this inefficiency in the market.

Bhanu Choudhrie now actively supports the acting talent in India and is now working with famous Indian singer and producer Anup Jalota in financing as well as developing films for Bollywood.

Besides Bollywood, Mr. Choudhrie is also active in the arts and believes in the value of institutions that highlight the natural talent of Indian artists and culture. In his spare time Mr. Choudhrie hopes to find a facility located in Central London to bring in musicians, artists and exhibits of famed artists of India such as M.F. Husain, to bring India Asian art to the forefront of the London art scene.

Finally, Mr. Choudhrie has a long history of working with his mother at her charity known as Path to Success. As a young child he would visit schools with handicapped children and children without parents where he gained an appreciation for the hard lives the children led. Through his mother’s charity, he works in promoting Path to Success to schools, businesses and individuals.

In summary, Mr. Choudhrie has flourished in numerous business sectors and is a world leader in aviation training facilities, creating investment opportunities through Alpha Aviation Group. He has directly positively impacted the lives of thousands of people through his companies and continues to improve society through his innovation, training and leadership at C&C Alpha Group.

Want to learn more about Bhanu Choudhrie, click here >>

Originally published at https://www.wingsjournal.com on May 6, 2019.