Founded in 1971 in India, Bird is among the country's largest and most diversified business groups. Pioneering Information Technology, Travel & Aviation Services, Hospitality, Automotive, Retail and Education, Bird's footprint spans across India, Europe & the Middle East.
We seek new heights to elevate our customer experience and deliver with excellence and innovation in every field that we operate.
For many, success comes from mastering their field. For us, true success comes from looking beyond it. At Bird Group, opportunity drives us, in all its forms, more than competition or a place at centre stage. The opportunity to grow in new markets, with new partners, create new experiences on a customer's journey, develop new solutions that inspire new directions.
For many, success comes from mastering their field. For us, true success comes from looking beyond it. At Bird Group, opportunity drives us, in all its forms, more than competition or a place at centre stage. The opportunity to grow in new markets, with new partners, create new experiences on a customer's journey, develop new solutions that inspire new directions.
Every venture we take is built on integrity and intention. We bring innovation to every sector we operate in, raising its standards both for our clients today, and for the clients we'll evolve to serve tomorrow. This is the benchmark we set ourselves. We match our ambition with rigour, our experimentation with expertise, our diversification with consideration. It's a way of approaching business that unites every vertical, and every individual in the Bird family. From aviation to hospitality to retail to education to tech and beyond. It's why we've grown for more than 50 years, and why we'll continue growing for 50 more. Why each one of us is always seeking opportunities to go further. To reach higher.
To always seek, is to forever soar
At Bird, recognition has never been the goal, it has simply followed the work. Every award, every word of appreciation, reminds us how much further there is still to go, and how many people made the journey possible. We accept each one with gratitude, and with the quiet resolve to do better still.
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President & Managing Director - Bird Group
Chairperson, Bird Group
Former Executive Director, Bird Group
Executive Director, Bird Group
In the early 1970s, a time when India stood at the cusp of modernisation and growth, Mr. Vijay Bhatia, a young graduate of Ramjas College, Delhi University chose to pursue his passion for travel, a decision that shaped a remarkable career spanning decades. Born in Lahore to a middle-class family rooted in principle and strong values, he moved to Delhi with his parents after their retirement from government service.
Known for his gentle demeanour, his warmth and his ability to connect with people, Mr. Bhatia started a small travel agency offering personalised, well-researched travel services, first to local businessmen: the carpet sellers of Banaras, the leather manufacturers of Kanpur, the garment exporters of Delhi and the handicraft makers of Moradabad. His knowledge, his service and his business acumen carried the agency forward steadily through the travel industry's early years. A perfectionist at heart, he always held to one guiding principle: slow and steady. His love of travel, his appetite for reading widely, and his natural warmth won him friends across the fraternity and within his family alike.
In 1973, he was joined by his wife, Radha Bhatia, and together they grew the business further. Sensing the new possibilities opening up in India, they brought automation and travel technology into the country's aviation industry, founding Amadeus India, a venture that went on to shape the Indian travel market for decades. Their vision was carried forward by their sons, Dr. Ankur Bhatia and Gaurav Bhatia.
A man of wide-ranging interests, Mr. Bhatia loves time spent in nature, travelling to places where he can find tranquillity and untouched beauty. When not in the company of his four grandchildren, he turns to old Hindi classics, fond reminders of an era he holds close. And when time allows, he still enjoys a few strokes with the bat.
Together with their younger son, Gaurav, Mr. and Mrs. Bhatia continue to grow Bird Group's presence across travel, aviation and hospitality in India each complementing the other to innovate, inspire and lead. Driven by a deep sense of service, ethics and care for the industry and for society, the family continues to build a legacy that endures.
Mrs. Radha Bhatia was born in 1946 in Lahore. An alumna of Sophia School, Meerut where she would later teach for four years, she holds a Master's degree in Psychology from Allahabad University.
She has built a life of equal commitment to family and to work, as a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, and as a leader who has met every challenge, personal and professional, without hesitation. She lives by her own words: "Nothing is impossible if you have faith in yourself even the unimaginable can be achieved."
Entrepreneurship has defined her life's work. Beginning with pioneering IT-enabled services in India, she has spent five decades steering Bird Group's growth into one of the country's largest and most diversified business groups with a footprint across the Indian subcontinent, Europe and the Middle East, spanning Information Technology, Travel & Aviation Services, Hospitality, Automotive, Retail and Education.
She was among the first entrepreneurs to bring foreign investment into India. In 1998, the then Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, conferred upon her the Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award.
With a strong desire to give back to society, she founded the Bird Education Society for Travel and Tourism, an NGO dedicated to bridging the gender gap by offering free education to girls in travel, tourism and hospitality, many of whom have gone on to build rewarding careers.
Mrs. Bhatia was a founding member of the World Travel and Tourism Council India Initiative, and the founder and chairperson of the CII–IWN (Indian Women Network) Delhi Chapter. She also served as Vice Chairperson of the Export Software Council. In 2003, she became the first Indian woman appointed Honorary Consul of the Solomon Islands. She is Founder and President of Women in Aviation India, a non-profit organisation founded in 2015 to inspire the next generation and open new paths for their careers and lives.
A woman of wide-ranging interests, she authored the award-winning book Lassis of India — Smoothies with a Twist, a collection of traditional Indian recipes passed down through generations. Her hobbies include cooking, painting and playing the sitar. Looking ahead, she is working to establish a university offering world-class travel, aviation and hospitality education to students from India and around the world.
Dr. Ankur Bhatia was a visionary leader whose contribution to Bird Group, and to the industry he helped build, was unmistakable. An alumnus of King's College, University of London, he pioneered the automation of airline reservations in India.
In 1994, he brought the Amadeus brand to the Indian subcontinent, which was the market leader in travel technology for agents and airlines for over 30 years in India.
He also set up Reservation Data Maintenance (India), an IT-enabled software and service support company for back-end airline operations and inventory control, and the first Indian BPO, established in 1992. RDM today counts leading airlines among its clients.
He extended Bird's IT capabilities further through Bird Information Systems (BIS), providing technology and solutions to airlines across the region, and BirdRes, a B2B distribution channel enabling travel industry players to manage content and payments through a single, flexible platform. He also established an IT solutions company in Dubai, Bird Technologies FZ LLC.
Drawing on decades of experience across the travel and service industries, Dr. Bhatia went on to lead the Group's expansion into hospitality through Bird Hospitality Services, building Roseate Hotels & Resorts into a distinct, India-born luxury brand. Today, the Group owns and operates seven luxury hotels across India and the UK, each with a character entirely its own. Few hospitality brands have risen to international standards as swiftly as Roseate has. He is also credited with launching India's first natural, perennial indoor ice rink, ISKATE by Roseate, at Ambience Mall, Gurugram.
Recognising the need for a cleaner, greener Delhi, Dr. Bhatia guided Bird Electric into personal transportation, bringing the eco-friendly, zero-emission Segway PT to India among the first in the market, and growing the portfolio with new mobility solutions since. In 2017, he also established BirdApps, an on-demand marketplace for the travel, hospitality and lifestyle sectors.
Dr. Bhatia was widely regarded as a trusted voice on India's aviation and tourism industry. He served on the CII's National Committee on Aviation, Infrastructure and Luxury Retail, and in 2006–07 became the youngest-ever elected Chairman of the Delhi State Council, Confederation of Indian Industries. He was also an active member of the World Economic Forum in India. In recognition of his contribution to travel, tourism and hospitality, he and the businesses under his leadership received numerous awards over the years, including the title of Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Liberia in India, conferred by Her Excellency the President of Liberia, and an honorary Doctorate of Excellence in September 2016.
A committed advocate of corporate social responsibility, he institutionalised a culture of giving back at Bird Group, and was closely associated with Sukarya, a non-profit working to improve health and wellbeing in marginalised communities. He was also a long-standing supporter of causes including the Blind Relief Association, Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Concern India.
Mr. Gaurav Bhatia provides strategic direction across Bird's evolving business verticals. An alumnus of Modern School, Vasant Vihar, he holds a degree in Business Management from the University of Kent, Canterbury. He joined the business in the early 2000s, just as India's aviation industry was entering a period of rapid growth and change.
Under his leadership, Bird has grown into India's leading aviation services provider, operating across 21 airports nationwide. Its portfolio spans ground handling, MRO & FBO, logistics and cargo, alongside airport lounges offering uncompromising service and hospitality at key locations.
Recognising the opportunity in India's growing aviation industry, he established Bird Delhi General Aviation, delivering India's first dedicated General Aviation Terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, spanning an apron of over 8 million sq ft with 57 dedicated aircraft parking bays.
Bird Foods, founded by Mr. Bhatia, is part of Bird Group's retail vertical. Today, it operates more than 30 outlets across its portfolio of brands, including The Indian Stories, Ka-Ching, Spice Nama, Eat.co and its newest addition, Freddo Bakehouse, with a presence spanning Delhi NCR, Dehradun, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Calicut, and, most recently, Mumbai. Spanning malls, airports, metro stations and high streets, Bird Foods continues to scale with purpose, with its sights set on 100 outlets across India's metros, and tier 2 and tier 3 cities, in the years ahead.
Under his leadership, Bird Travels, the bedrock of Bird Group represents more than 30 international airlines exclusively in India, while the hospitality vertical continues to expand its footprint across India and Europe.
A lifelong passion for automobiles led Mr. Bhatia to found the Bird Automotive Group, bringing decades of industry knowledge to authorised dealerships for Bentley, Porsche, BMW, MINI and Citroën delivering premium mobility with customer satisfaction at its core.
