The Indian airline market is among the few in the world where the heads of two incumbent airlines and the chief executive officer (CEO) of a player waiting in the wings - IndiGo's Aditya Ghosh, Air India's Rohit Nandan, and AirAsia India head Mittu Chandilya - come from the non-aviation background. Even SpiceJet's former CEO, Siddhanta Sharma, who headed the airline from October 2005 to July 2008, didn't come with operational experience in the airline business
AirAsia's Chandilya, the latest to join the fray, could certainly take heart from the performance records of Ghosh, Sharma and, to some extent, Nandan, the career-bureaucrat who has, over 18-20 months, brought some semblance of stability to operations of the beleaguered national carrier.
Ghosh's has been a fairy tale flight - from a law firm into the cockpit of the country's largest airline in terms of passenger numbers. Sharma, a finance professional by training, had worked in liquor and food companies before entering aviation. Chandilya, with stints in recruitment and manufacturing industries, considers his non-airline experience to be an advantage. "I am a start-up and turnaround person...being disruptive is my strength," he says. AirAsia has several non-airline CEOs across its subsidiaries in other countries, he adds.
So, is there something in India's airline environment that makes it conducive to 'industry outsiders'?
Saroj K Datta, former executive director of Jet Airways and an industry veteran with around 40 years of experience, concedes at times, CEOs from within the industry come with preconceived notions. Any airline CEO has to manage people, deal with operations and understand financial matters, he says. Irrespective of the background, airline CEOs have to deal with the peculiar challenges of this competitive industry.
Read News in Full 28/07/13 Global Travel Industry News
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