Jet Airways: Kalrock-Jalan appoints Sanjiv Kapoor as CEO of airline

The Kalrock-Jalan consortium, the new promoters of Jet Airways, announced on Friday the appointment of Sanjiv Kapoor as the CEO of the airline. Kapoor will take on the role from April 4. 

Sanjiv Kapoor is currently the President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts. Prior to that, he was the Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at Vistara from 2016 to 2019. The airline, during his tenure, grew from 9 aircraft and 40 flights a day to 38 aircraft and over 200 flights a day, the consortium said in a statement. He oversaw all of Vistara’s functions, including revenue generation, customer functions, strategy, network planning, marketing, loyalty, inflight services, ground services, and product development. 

Before joining Vistara, Kapoor led SpiceJet as COO in 2014-15 as well as CEO from November 2013 until October 2015. The consortium added that Kapoor shepherded the airline “through a period of record high oil prices and a cash crunch, to cultural and operational transformation, ownership change, and profitability within 15 months of assuming charge”. 

“Even though Jet Airways has been out of operation for three years, it still has a large fan base of loyal customers who miss it every day and can’t wait for it to take to the skies again. Working together with a very strong team of experienced aviation professionals that is being put together by the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium, I look forward to leading the charge in rebuilding Jet Airways into the most preferred customer-oriented airline once again, a people-focused airline for the digital age,” said Kapoor. 

Murari Lal Jalan, lead partner of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, said that with Sanjiv Kapoor as the CEO and Vipula Gunatilleka as the CFO, “Jet Airways will reclaim its lost glory”. Vipula Gunatilleka, who was the CEO of SriLankan Airlines till January 2022 assumed the new role from March 1. 

Hailing from Kolkata, Sanjiv Kapoor is an alumnus of La Martiniere. He received his BA in Computer Science and Government from Dartmouth College in 1990 and an MBA degree in 1996 from Wharton (University of Pennsylvania). An aviation specialist, Kapoor started his airline career with Northwest Airlines (now merged with Delta) in the US in 1997. He worked in finance and corporate planning there. 

In 2004, Sanjiv joined Bain and Company in Singapore, and subsequently in Dallas and London as a leader in their airline practice. He has also worked with Temasek Holdings, and Oracle Corporation.

Also read: Kalrock-Jalan appoints ex-SriLankan Airlines CEO Vipula Gunatilleka as Jet CFO