Air India U-turn on key appointment

New Delhi: The Air India board today overturned the appointment of Pawan Arora as the chief operating officer of Air India Express, the low-cost arm of the national carrier.
Sources said Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra and government nominee Bharat Bhushan had strongly opposed the appointment.
Many within Air India had objected to the choice of Arora as they felt others in the airline were more capable. Aurora had worked for Jet, Paramount and Indigo but never as the head or even as deputy head of an airline. He was being offered an annual salary of Rs 1.9 crore.
Mitra and Bhushan also asked the management to review the appointment of Stefan Sukumar, who was hired as chief training officer of AI.
They, however, approved the appointment of former journalist Kamaljit Rattan as chief information officer and Gustav Baldauf as chief operating officer of Air India.
“The coup of sorts was orchestrated by a powerful independent director and the government nominee. Two other independent directors – Air Chief Marshal (retired) Fali H Major and Anand Mahindra stayed away from the meeting. Industrialist Harsh Neotia had to leave early as he had some other pressing appointments,” said sources.
The independent directors have been critical of Air India’s attempts to bring in outsiders.
19/11/10 The Telegraph

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