NEW DELHI, March 14: Tata Sons’ chief Natarajan Chandrasekaran has been appointed the chairman of Air India over which the Tata Group regained its control after 69 years in January.
Chandrasekaran, who was reappointed Tata Son’s executive chairperson in February for another five years, will take over AI chairmanship in place of the former Turkish airlines chief Ilker Ayci, who was forced to decline the offer after controversy broke out over his appointment.
Chandrasekaran had joined the board of Tata Sons in October 2016 and was appointed Chairman for the first time in January 2017 following the acrimonious exit of former Chairman Cyrus Mistry. He also chairs the boards of several group operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – of which he was Chief Executive from 2009-17.
Ayci had declined the offer of chief executive officer of Air India citing “attempts” to paint his appointment “with undesirable colours”. “My appointment as (CEO of) Air India within Tata Group was announced earlier in February, with a start date of April 1. Since the announcement, I have been sadly following news in some sections of the media attempting to colour my appointment with undesirable colours,” Ayci had said in a statement.
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.
(Manas Dasgupta)
