Air India to hire four key managers

Air India Board is likely to approve the appointments in four key managerial positions, which would put an extra annual burden of over Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million).

A meeting of the Board, scheduled on Tuesday, may approve the appointments for the posts of the Chief Operating Officer of Air India Express and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Chief Training Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the parent company.

Air India sources said the appointments of Capt Pawan Arora as the COO of the airline's low-cost arm, former IBM Executive Karan Khara as Air India's CSO, Stefan Sukumar as its CTO and Kamaljit Rattan as CIO are likely to be approved by the Board.

The Human Resources Committee of the National Aviation Company of India Limited, which runs Air India, recently cleared the names of Arora, Sukumar and Rattan, they said.

The Board is also likely to take up for approval the leasing of four Airbus A-330s and ten Airbus A-320s. The leases are likely to be between 18 and 34 months, the sources said. Regarding to key appointments, they said AI Express COO is likely to get an annual salary package of Rs 1.2 crore (Rs 12 million), the CSO could get a package of Rs 95 lakh, the CTO Rs 1.2 crore and CIO Rs 48 lakh.

The perks would include high insurance and medical cover besides free tickets on international and domestic destinations.

Earlier, Air India had appointed Capt Gustav Baldauf as its Chief Operating Officer on a package of around Rs 3 crore (Rs 30 million).

Ironically, the management is seeking these appointments at a time when it plans to reportedly renegotiate wage agreements with trade unions in the company to cut costs.

However, top civil aviation ministry officials have said the Cabinet note, seeking Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) as fresh equity induction in Air India, does not speak of any wage renegotiations at this stage. But it has been made clear to the airline that fresh equity infusion would come only on the condition that costs are reduced.