Pawan Arora sacked as Air India Express chief

National carrier Air India on Thursday sacked Pawan Arora, chief operating officer (COO) of Air India Express, the airline's low-budget carrier and set up a committee to look into another controversial appointment of Stefan Sukumar as the airline's chief of training.

Controversy broke out over the appointment of Arora and Sukumar in late September amid reports that both did not fulfill the minimum requirements for the posts.

Arora was appointed as Air India Express COO less than two months ago. The controversy over his appointment erupted following reports that he had not qualified as the flight operations instructor in DGCA.

The airline's board of directors has decided to dispense with the services of Arora at its meeting, which went into the issue of top appointments in Air India Express. Regarding the appointment of Sukumar, the Board decided to set up a panel to study the procedural aspects of his entry, directing that a report on the matter be submitted within a fortnight. The Board however, approved the appointment of Kamaljeet Rattan as the chief information officer, the sources said.

Early this month, four independent directors on the board of AI had met principal secretary to the Prime Minister, T.K.A.

Nair and expressed their displeasure at the functioning of Air India chairman and managing director ( CMD) Arvind Jadhav and wondered what the purpose of appointment of independent directors was, when advice given by some of them was being ignored.

Questions were also raised at the meeting about the recent appointment of Pawan Arora as the COO of Air India Express.

There has been a lot of criticism recently from some quarters on the high salaries paid to persons recently appointed to top positions in the airline and also the manner of appointment of some of these persons.

It was also reported that the appointment letter of Arora was issued even before the Board had approved it at its September 27 meeting. Arora was previously with Jet Airways and Kingfisher among other airlines after he left the Indian Air Force.

Similarly, the selection of Sukumar came under scrutiny following reports that he was an instructor for Airbus A- 300 and A- 310 aircraft, both of which are not in Air India's fleet, which is dominated by Boeing B- 777s and Airbus A- 320s.

Courtesy: Mail Today