The government is considering going back to the system of appointing professionals, rather than career bureaucrats, as the heads of state-owned airlines.

In the immediate term, however, bureaucrats may continue to steer the carriers.

Thus, the top contender for the post of Indian Airlines' managing director, which is likely to fall vacant with Sunil Arora's scheduled exit on June 13, is V Thulasidas, the current chairman and managing director of Air-India.

Sanjay Narayan, a Maharashtra cadre IAS serving as a joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry, who was also considered as a top contender for the post, appears to have fallen out favor in the last few days. However, whoever wins the race, will have Indian Airlines only as an additional charge.

The impending initial public offering of the two carriers and increasing competition are being cited as the reasons why the government is veering towards professional CEOs.

The last non-bureaucrat helmsman of Indian Airlines was R N Vasudev, who held the post during 1993-94. Before him, there were R Prasad (1990), G Pais (1988-98) and K Chadda (1982-87). Similarly, Rajan Jaitley and Yogi Deveshwar were some of the professional head honchos of Air-India. Government sources said that the government is expected to take final call on Arora's replacement in the next couple of days.

"The arrangement will be an interim one with a bureaucrat holding the additional charge. The permanent arrangement will be worked out soon," said a senior civil aviation ministry official.

A bureaucrat holding additional charges as the CMD of the two carriers is also not a new experiment. Infact, Arora, was also holding the additional responsibility of CMD two years between 2000 and 2002, while he was a joint secretary at ministry of civil aviation.

Arora took charge as the full time CMD of Indian Airlines in June 2002 for a period of three years. Arora's five years at the top of Indian Airlines saw the state-run carrier turning around, despite the steep increase in oil price and entry of private carriers, including the budget airlines.