Air India COO to protest sacking of Pawan Arora

New Delhi: Further fissures appear to have emerged between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Air India management after Thursday’s controversial board meeting.
Tempers are running high after independent directors joined hands with government nominees to boot out Air India Express COO Pawan Arora and review the appointment of AI’s chief of training Stefan Sukumar.
According to sources, AI COO Gustav Baldauf—who brought in Arora and Sukumar—is planning to lodge a formal protest about the way the board meeting was conducted on Thursday, by raising corporate governance issues.
According to multiple sources, only three of the five independent directors attended the meeting, no voting was done on the proposal to sack Arora and review other appointments and neither Arora nor Baldauf were given a chance to explain their side of the story.
No new reasons were assigned for the removal of Arora and review of Sukumar’s appointment.
“Is this how a board meeting is conducted? It should be conducted in a professional manner or the airline will suffer further,” airline sources said.
They also indicated that the airline’s functioning had come under a cloud now, since Baldauf was brought in to oversee operations and was promised independence in selecting his own team.
20/11/10 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Air India Budget Nov 2010, Air India Nov 2010