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Tata Sons Nipun Aggarwal to Head Air India Management Committee: Report

Tata Sons Senior Vice-President Nipun Aggarwal has been appointed with the task of heading the Air India management committee, CNBC-TV18 has learnt from sources.

The management committee will retain all four Air India directors, CNBC-TV18 reported quoting sources. No sudden changes planned at Air India, and the focus will be on improving customer experience and on-time performance (OTP).

Earlier on January 18, the ministry of civil aviation appointed Vikram Dev Dutt as the chairman and managing director of Air India Limited.

The management committee has been asked to oversee the operations until new appointments of independent directors, and CEO complete necessary clearances. The Air India management committee will reportedly include Vinod Hejmadi (Director – Finance), Meenakshi Mallik (Director – Commercial), Amrita Sharan (Director – HR), and Capt RS Sandhu (Director – Operations).

After nearly 70 years, Tata Group on Thursday regained ownership of Air India. With the completion of the deal, the group will own 100 per cent stake in Air India, Air India Express and a 50 per cent shareholding in AISATS.

Talace Private Limited — a subsidiary of the Tata Group’s holding company Tata Sons — on October 8, 2021, won the bid to acquire debt-ridden Air India. It had offered Rs 18,000 crore, including cash of Rs 2,700 crore which has now been paid to the government.

For the remainder of the airline’s employees, the Tata Group is bound to retain the staff for a period of one year, as per the bidding conditions, following which it can offer a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in the second year.

Yesterday, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran after taking over Air India from the government said that he was delighted that Air India’s takeover process is complete. He added the group will focus on bringing down operational costs of Air India and improving the performance of the airline in their bid towards creating a world-class airline.

Air India and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express add to a portfolio that boasts two airlines — Vistara and AirAsia India.

For the government, the disinvestment means the taxpayer no more funds the Rs 20-crore a day loss being incurred by the airline. Since 2009-10, the government has pumped in Rs 1.10 lakh crore to support Air India.

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Source: News18