Tata Sons Senior Vice President Nipun Aggarwal to Lead Air India Management Committee: Report

As per the updates, the management committee is likely to oversee the company operations until independent directors and CEO complete their clearances.

New Delhi: A day after the official handover from the government, Air India under the Tata Group and the new management committee has started functioning. As per a report by CNBC-TV18, Tata Sons Senior Vice President Nipun Aggarwal has been appointed to head Air India Management Committee. The report also claimed that the Management Committee has retained all four Air India directors including Director Finance Vinod Hejmadi, Director-Commercial, Meenakshi Malik, Director-HR, Amrita Sharan and Director-Opeartions, Capt RS Sandhu.

As per the updates, the management committee is likely to oversee the company operations until independent directors and CEO complete their clearances.

The report suggested that no sudden change has been planned at Air India and the focus is on improving the customer experience and on time performance.

Earlier this month, the ministry of civil aviation had appointed Vikram Dev Dutt as the chairman and managing director of Air India Limited. However, Vikram Dev Dutt now has been appointed as the MD of Air India Assets Holding limited with effect from Friday, the report claimed.

Neary after 69 years, the Central government on Thursday handed over the management control of national carrier Air India to a subsidiary of Tata Sons.

With this, Air India’s strategic disinvestment was complete after the Centre received a consideration of Rs 2,700 crore from the ‘Strategic Partner’ — Talace — which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

Besides the upfront payment, Talace will retain a debt of Rs 15,300 crore. Notably, the transaction covered three entities – Air India, Air India Express and AI SATS.

“The strategic disinvestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control. A new Board, led by the Strategic Partner, takes charge of Air India,” tweeted Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

Ahead of the official handover, Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Thursday.

Afterwards, at ‘Airlines House’, the HQ of Air India, a new board was constituted which included Tata Group’s executives.

“We are excited to have Air India back in the Tata Group and are committed to making this a world-class airline,” Chandrasekaran said.

Last month, the Competition Commission of India had approved the acquisition of Air India, Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services by Talace.

The acquisition envisaged 100 per cent equity share capital of Air India and Air India Express, and 50 per cent for that of Air India SATS Airport Services by Talace.