All the Maharaja’s men

New Delhi: Internecine battles in the boardroom, the Centre’s refusal to extend a Rs 1,200-crore lifeline, and then a chaotic transition to a hub-and-spoke model, have all put the Maharaja in the light for all the wrong reasons.
What is most frustrating for the airline now is the hugely fractious nature of its board ever since the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines two years ago. Senior appointments aren’t smooth, neither are exits. Independent directors interfere on operational issues. Government nominees on the board keep bureaucracy alive in an organisation already saddled with HR conflicts and financial losses.
While the board recently axed the controversial appointment of Capt Pawan Arora as the chief operating officer (COO) of Air India Express, uncertainty continues to loom large over the second appointment of Stefan Sukumar as chief training officer of the Air India. These new entrants were at the centre of a showdown in the latest meeting of the 14-member board when independent directors and the government nominees joined hands to throw out Arora. The candidature of both Arora and Sukumar was backed by airline’s five-month old expat chief operating officer Gustav Baldauf, who was given the mandate by the civil aviation ministry to draw a turnaround plan. Sources said Baldauf is a bitter man today, having experienced first-hand ‘a taste of working in a government sector company’. The fiasco also led to a not-so-pleasant meeting between civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar and Baldauf, where he was clearly told that ‘such behaviour’ cannot be tolerated in a state-owned company.
29/11/10 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: Air India Nov 2010