Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran has been appointed the Chairman of Air India at a board meeting of the airline conducted last week, a source in know of the matter told The Indian Express. A Tata Sons spokesperson confirmed the development.
“Mr Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman last week. Another board meeting was held today (Monday) to discuss the way forward,” the source said, adding that the new name for the airline’s managing director & CEO is expected to be announced soon.
Currently, three executive directors who were appointed by the government when the airline was in its control are still serving on the board of Air India. The Tata Group took over the airline on January 27 this year, and is yet to announce a reconstituted board of directors.
Chandrasekaran also serves as the non-executive chairman of several other Tata Group companies, including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Tata Consumer Products. He was reappointed Tata Sons’ executive chairman last month for another five years.
In February, delivering his maiden address to Air India employees, Chandrasekaran set the stage for the turnaround of Air India, and laid down a roadmap with four core areas for the new management to focus on: providing “best in class customer service”; making Air India the “most technologically advanced airline in the world”; upgrading aircraft, bringing in new fleet and expanding the airline’s network; and ensuring in-flight and off-flight hospitality is “the best”.
The Mumbai-based conglomerate had announced former Turkish Airlines Chairman Ilker Ayci as its MD & CEO-designate but he declined the offer citing “attempts” to paint his appointment “with undesirable colours”.
In October last year, the Tata Group had emerged as winning bidder for 100% of Air India (including the airline’s 100% stake in budget airline Air India Express and 50% stake in ground handling firm AI-SATS), having placed a bid of Rs 18,000 crore. Of this amount, Tatas were to take over Rs 15,300 crore worth of debt and Rs 2,700 crore was to be paid to the government in cash.