Air India's new chief is betting an 'open door' policy will help defuse
years of soured relations with the flag carrier's more than 20,000
staff, paving the way for potentially painful change at the loss-making
airline.
Ashwani Lohani, a 56-year-old engineer and tourism bureaucrat with no experience running an airline, describes his job as "the ultimate challenge".
The 85-year-old state-owned airline is unprofitable, overstaffed and losing market share. India's aviation market may be the world's fastest growing, but it's dominated by younger, nimbler, low-cost rivals such as IndiGo and SpiceJet.
Returning Air India to profit after almost a decade in the red would be a coup for a government that has vowed to cut losses, and whose prime minister built a track record of turning around state firms while running the state of Gujarat. But it will require unpalatable decisions from both a state apparatus reluctant to cede control and from Lohani.
Speaking in his New Delhi office, Lohani says he is starting from the ground up, with Air India's staff, as he grapples with a record of poor staff discipline, grumpy service and frequent delays.
Read news in full 15/10/15 Business World
Ashwani Lohani, a 56-year-old engineer and tourism bureaucrat with no experience running an airline, describes his job as "the ultimate challenge".
The 85-year-old state-owned airline is unprofitable, overstaffed and losing market share. India's aviation market may be the world's fastest growing, but it's dominated by younger, nimbler, low-cost rivals such as IndiGo and SpiceJet.
Returning Air India to profit after almost a decade in the red would be a coup for a government that has vowed to cut losses, and whose prime minister built a track record of turning around state firms while running the state of Gujarat. But it will require unpalatable decisions from both a state apparatus reluctant to cede control and from Lohani.
Speaking in his New Delhi office, Lohani says he is starting from the ground up, with Air India's staff, as he grapples with a record of poor staff discipline, grumpy service and frequent delays.
Read news in full 15/10/15 Business World
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