AI to hire Chief Strategy Officer, COO for its budget arm

In a bid to restructure its top hierarchy, Air India plans to hire some senior executives, including a Chief Strategy Officer and a Chief Operating Officer for its low-cost international arm Air India Express, airline sources said on Tuesday.

The decision came as part of its continued efforts to restructure and beef up the management, as the national carrier carried out a major shake-up among its top-level executives.

In the exercise which will come into effect from July 15, a reshuffle of jobs handled by six Executive Directors was carried out. It would also see shuffling of eight General Manager level and three Deputy General Manager level officers.

Now, National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which run Air India, plans to hire a Chief Strategy Officer and a Chief Operating Officer for Air India Express, the sources said.

Air India Express does not have a COO since the exit of Capt P P Singh, who completed a three-year contract with the airline last September.

NACIL also plans to hire a Chief Information Officer to oversee its IT division as well as a Chief Communication Officers to handle its corporate Communication division and a Chief Human Resources Advisor, the sources said.

The Chief Strategy Officer would be responsible for managing the Business Transformation Office and work closely with CMD Arvind Jadhav and COO Gustav Baldauf to ensure that the turnaround strategy is translated into action, the sources said.

He or she would also be responsible for identifying and tracking strategic initiatives, they said. These decisions came over a month after COO Baldauf was appointed.

The national carrier is in the process of taking major steps to restructure itself by curtailing costs and enhancing revenue and savings.

The move comes ahead of a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Air India, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, next month.

The GoM would deliberate on the measures taken by the ailing national carrier to effect a turnaround after suffering an estimated loss of Rs 5,400 crore (Rs 54 billion) in 2009-10.