Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran has been appointed as Air India Chairman, a group spokesperson said. The development comes as the Tata Group scouts for a new Air India CEO-MD.
Tata group had previously announced Turkey’s Ilker Ayci as the chief executive of Air India, but that appointment was met with a lot of opposition in India. As a result, Turkey’s Ilker Ayci had declined to be the chief executive of Tata’s Air India.
Before heading Tata Sons, Chandrasekaran was chairman of Tata Consultancy Services. He was the third non-Tata, after Nowroji Saklatwala and Cyrus Mistry, to hold the position.
The 58-year-old Tata veteran started as a software programmer in 1987. He rose through the ranks to take the top job when he was just 46 and become one of the youngest CEOs in the Tata group. In 2016, he joined the board of Tata Sons and took over as Chairman in 2017.
The Tata group operates four separate airlines in India and has been looking to impose wholesale change at the top of Air India as it seeks to revive the ailing carrier.
Tata Sons is yet to appoint the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of Air India. According PTI report, Chandrasekaran’s appointment as the chairman of the airline was cleared by its board last week.
Recently, the Tata Group bought the debt-ridden state-owned Air India from the Central government by placing a bid of over Rs 18,000 crore at an auction and on January 27, it took over the full control of the airlines.
(With inputs from agencies)
