Air India Sacks AI Express Chief Operating Officer

New Delhi, Nov 18 (PTI): Air India today sacked Pawan Arora as the Chief Operating Officer of its low budget airline, less than two months after his controversial appointment.

Official sources said the cash-strapped state-owned airline's Board of Directors decided to "dispense with" the services of Arora(55) at its meeting which went into the issue of top level appointments in Air India Express.

Regarding another controversial appointment of Stefan Sukumar as the airline's Chief of Training, the Board decided to set up a committee to study the procedural aspects of his entry, directing that a report on the matter be submitted within a fortnight.

The Board however approved the appointment of Kamaljeet Rattan as the Chief Information Officer, the sources said.

Controversy broke out over the appointment of Arora and Sukumar in September-end amid reports that both did not fulfil the minimum requirements for the posts.

The controversy over Arora's appointment as Air India Express COO erupted following reports that he had not qualified as the Flight Operations Instructor in DGCA.

It was also reported that appointment letter of Arora was issued even before the Board had approved it at its September 27 meeting. Arora was previously with Jet Airways and Kingfisher among other airlines after he left hte IAF.

Similarly, the selection of Stefan Sukumar as Chief of Training came under scrutiny following reports that he was an instructor for Airbus A-300 and A-310 aircraft, both of which are not in Air India's fleet which is dominated by Boeing B- 777s and Airbus A-320s.

DGCA rules state that an airline's training chief should be an approved examiner on the type of aircraft which is in the fleet and should be a permanent employee of the airline and not on contract.

In case the airline has a mixed fleet, the training in-charge should be a DGCA approved examiner on aircraft type of highest category in the fleet, as per the rules.

Air India unions had opposed these appointments, not only on procedural grounds, but also on the "huge" pay packages they were offered by the ailing national carrier at at time when it was delaying the payment of salaries and allowances to its employees.

The meeting came little over a fortnight after four independent Directors of the Air India Board discussed the airline's financial position and the recent controversial appointments with T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

The Board also approved the sale of four 20-year old Airbus A-310 freighter aircraft and decided to release their crew and engineering manpower for new types of aircraft.

The independent directors, who attended the Board meeting today, were former Chief of Air Staff Fali Homi Major, FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra and Harsh Neotia of the Ambuja Group.

The Board also took note of the implementation of an IT platform for Air India which would provide a single code for the merged carrier. The codes have been different for the two erstwhile carriers -- 'IC' for Indian Airlines and 'AI' for Air India, so far.

A single code and upgradation of the IT platform is an essential requirement for the national carrier joining the global umbrella body of premier airlines called the Star Alliance.

The Board approved the audited financial results for 2009-10, which showed that Air India's losses have come down by 23 per cent to Rs 5,551 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 7,189 crore in the previous financial year.

The operating loss of the company declined by 39 per cent at Rs 3,472 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 5,672 crore in the previous fiscal.

The airline's passenger load factor rose to 64.8 per cent in 2009-10 from 59.5 per cent in the previous year.

As a result of several cost-cutting measures, the airline's total expenditure decreased by eight per cent from Rs 20,668 crore to Rs 19,035 crore, though its total revenue remains almost stagnant, the official figures showed.

In the first 6 months of this financial year (2010- 11), the passenger load factor has gone up by 8 per cent to about 67.1 per cent while the passenger revenue of the airline was at Rs 1,034 crore. It's revenues from cargo operations was Rs 140 crores during April-September.

In the backdrop of declining losses, the airline expects that the government would consider infusing further equity of Rs 1,200 crores, after having given it Rs 800 crores in February.

The second tranche of government funds, to be released after a nod from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, is likely to be used for settling outstanding dues and not to enhance the airline's equity base.

It also hopes to get the Reserve Bank of India's approval for its debt restructuring. Air India has an estimated debt burden of Rs 18,000 crores which it wants to recast into low- interest debt.