[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Meet Kanika Tekriwal, who is taking the aviation industry by storm

Kanika Tekriwal always speaks her mind. She says this has helped her survive in an otherwise male-dominated industry. 

“At the age of 17, I was working in one of the toughest industries, and private jets were few and far. It is an industry that has evolved, grown, shrunk, and grown again,” Kanika tells HerStory.

Kanika had been working in the aviation industry for close to eight years. She founded Delhi-NCR-based startup JetSetGo in 2014 at the age of 22-years-old, after she realised there was a need for a professional charter service that provided transparent pricing and operations.

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When she realised the industry of privately chartered planes were filled with brokers and operators — causing a lot of frustration — Kanika decided to change it. 

She adds that anyone who wanted to use a private jet would have to contact a broker or a private operator, who would recommend jets or helicopters, which give them maximum commission, irrespective of the client’s requirements. 

“Due to sheer lack of transparency and non-availability of charter planes, customers pay astronomical amounts. Similarly, if the customer contacts an operator, they would pitch an aircraft solely operated by that operator,” Kanika explains. 

After working close to 20 months behind the scenes, Kanika launched JetSet go for private jet and helicopter charter. The plane aggregator operates, manages, and flies planes for owners. 

“I had the idea brewing in my head for close to three years or so, but when I took out my sketch board and started working on it, I was diagnosed with cancer, which set me back by a year. Luckily for me, nobody else in the country had gotten around to doing something similar until I finished treatment or until now,” says Kanika.

JetSetGo is now pioneering air taxis with intra-city connectivity in India using electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The startup uses a mix of tech, unique maintenance procedures, and SMART management — all of which are developed by proprietary properties of JetSetGo. This, in turn, helps reduce maintenance cost, increases airtime, decreases ground time, thereby ensuring profitability. 

In fact, it also reduces the cost of chartered aircraft substantially, making them more readily and frequently accessible to flyers.

With the 'SMART' management technique, maintenance prevention, and prediction technologies, the startup offers safety and on-time arrival like never before. 

Kanika envisions to tap the third dimension — the sky — to its fullest potential, and make chartered air travel the future of transport for Indians who value time and convenience.

“We are looking to democratise air travel,” adds Kanika. 

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