Air India: New MD Nandan has toughest job in the world

The government’s decision to show Arvind Jadhav the exit door is not surprising, to say the least. His handling of the financial mess at Air India made his continuity completely untenable, which is now facing an accumulated loss of over Rs 51,000 crore.

Of late, the national carrier has been in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. It has been consistently losing out on all key performance parameters like market share, load factor, aircraft utilisation, and employees’ morale. While all other Indian carriers have been stepping up their revenue and cutting down on their losses, AI has been hopping from one controversy to another.

So, for Rohit Nandan, who is stepping in and has been tasked with the revival of the famed carrier, the job is by no means easy. The new management team will work under close supervision of aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi, who will be the chairman, and the group of ministers on AI to get equity infusion, which will happen only on achieving set goals. Nandan, who is set to take over as MD, will be looking after the day-to-day functions. Orders to this effect are expected to be issued today, official sources said.

Nandan, a UP-cadre IAS officer of the 1982 batch, was among 10 bureaucrats handpicked by the PM to salvage the Commonwealth Games barely two months before the event. An MBA from England, he was in charge of three venues-Karni Singh shooting range, Siri Fort stadium and RK Khanna tennis stadium.

An MBA from England, Allahabad-born Nandan’s first stint at the Centre was in December 2009 when he came to the aviation ministry and was made in charge of the domestic airlines, DGCA and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. Earlier, he had served in UP as principal secretary to chief ministers.

The government had been looking for a replacement for Jadhav for some time, but none of the officers it approached was ready to take up the task. One of the officials who turned down the AI CMD job is learnt to have said that the situation in AI may be beyond redemption unless the government promises to keep pumping in thousands of crores year after year. A turnaround plan prepared for AI has said the airline will require over Rs 43,000 crore over the next decade as well as 130 planes in addition to the 110 already ordered.