Air India CTO also quits, all ‘outsiders’ now out

The Air India management on Tuesday accepted the resignation of chief training officer Stefan Sukumar, a day after chief operating officer Gustav Baldauf was made to resign.

AI Express COO Pawan Arora was also similarly made to resign a few weeks ago. With these exits (amid allegations of non-performance and exceptionally high salaries), all the ‘outsiders’ who had been recruited to turn around the ailing airline are now officially out. So where does it leave Air India?

Several theories are doing the rounds. According to some airline officials, AI chairman and MD Arvind Jadhav has been asked to look after the airline, as before.

Apparently, the ministry of civil aviation will now play a more active role than ever in running the airline, with several of the carrier’s important decisions expected to be taken by the aviation minister Vayalar Ravi himself, while Jadhav focuses on bringing the airline back to profitability.

Another version points to some insiders being promoted to look after day-to-day operations and the CMD remaining overall in-charge.

A S Soman is at present executive director (operations) whereas K M Unni is the executive director (engineering).

According to sources, Baldauf has handed over charge to Unni and Sukumar to Soman. An airline official pointed out that there are over 20 directors across several functions in the airline and there was no need to hire outsiders to run AI.

“The correct course of action should be to not recruit outsiders at fancy salaries and instead look to run the airline by promoting some seniors who have served this company for several years.”

Many directors of the airline were called for an urgent meeting with the CMD in Delhi this afternoon.

On the issue of appointing a new COO for Air India Express (the low cost arm of Air India), the officials said that the ministry of civil aviation is soon expected to set up a search committee to select a suitable candidate.

Industry veterans point out that Baldauf was unsuccessful in doing much for the airline and in fact, operations were continuing under him much like they used to before he joined.

“Even today, operational directors carry the daily burden, not expats who were hired at fancy salaries … not much would change at the operational level. But if it is true that the ministry would take an even more active part in running the airline, then that could well become a cause for concern ... interference by the government should be lessened, not increased.”

If not on the personnel issue, AI has something to cheer about on the financial front. Monday’s budget announcement promises another Rs2,000 crore equity to the ailing airline. But is it enough? The airline is preparing to ask for as much as Rs17,500 crore equity from the government to tide over its financial woes - this is among the suggestions global consultancy Deloitte has made to the airline board recently.