Ilker Ayci is first foreign-national to head Air India

Tata Sons on Monday announced the appointment of former chairman of Turkish Airlines Ilker Ayci as the chief executive officer and managing director of Air India.

The Air India board met on Monday afternoon to consider the candidature of Ilker Ayci and after due deliberations approved the appointment of Ayci as the CEO & MD of Air India, Tata Sons said in a statement.

Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran was a special invitee to this board meeting, it added.

Ayci will assume his new responsibilities on or before April 1 this year, it said.

The statement also added that Ayci's appointment to the new position is subject to requisite regulatory approvals.

Tatas regained ownership of Air India late last month, nearly seven decades after it lost control to the government.” said Ayci.

After a competitive bidding process, the government had on October 8 last year sold Air India to Talace Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group's holding company, for Rs 18,000 crore.

Tatas beat the Rs 15,100-crore offer by a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh and the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the government for the sale of its 100 per cent stake in the loss-making carrier.

Air India was started by the Tata Group in 1932. However, after the country got independence, It was nationalised in 1953.

Civil servants, air force officers, technocrats, airline pilots and many more individuals have piloted Air India over the decades.

When Ilker Ayci takes control of the currently loss-making Air India, he will be the first foreign national to be at the helm of the once-storied carrier.

As many as 61 individuals have headed Air India, including erstwhile Indian Airlines, between June 6, 1953, and January 27, 2022 -- the period during which the carrier was under the government's control, according to an official document accessed by PTI.

The list includes civil servants, Air Force officers, technocrats and airline pilots.

Eight out of the 61 person served as chairman and managing director of the combined entity, Air India Ltd, between August 2007 and January 27, 2022.

Air India's last government-appointed CMD was IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt, who took charge on January 21, 2022 and Tatas took control of the carrier on January 27.

B C Mukherjee, an Indian civil services officer, was the first chairman of Air India after it was nationalised in 1953 and served in that position from June 12, 1953 to March 9, 1954. His successor Shankar Prasad, also a civil services ICS officer, was at the helm as chairman for nearly five years.

Also, 34 persons served as chairman/CMD of Air India between June 1953 and August 2008. Of them, 15 persons served as chairman and 16 persons as chairman and managing director during the period.

Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters