Air India's new chief Rohit Nandan to clear airline's mess

Mumbai: A few days after Russi Mody became the Air India chairman in 1993, he called a meeting of the airline's top brass and union leaders at the airline's towering headquarters in Mumbai's Nariman Point.
The veteran Tata executive presented his ambitious plan for transforming the national carrier into the world's best airline. "He was so charged up and wanted to do so many things for the airline," a AI union leader who attended the meeting recalled.
One year into the job, the man who had braved several obstacles and fought several battles in the private sector, had quit in disgust. His grand plans for the airline scuttled by bureaucratic red-tape and government intervention. In remarks made later, Mody criticized the lack of talent and the complete absence of an incentive and accountability culture. "There is no punishment, no reward, no participation and the horse and the donkey are treated alike," he told website rediff.com.
Eighteen years later, Arvind Jadhav, a 1978 batch IAS officer, who will end his tenure as the airline's 15th MD, is probably experiencing the same disgust. The airline that he served for the past two years is teetering on the brink. Mounting losses, huge debt, and disgruntled employees has more or less destroyed Air India's prestige and image and threatens to flatten whatever is left of the organization.
Many CEOs have come and gone, many man hours have been wasted on grand PowerPoint presentations, intense discussions and pious statements from the ministry officials and politicians but there has been little improvement in Air India finances and performances.
13/08/11 Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Aug 2011