Vinod Kannan to Retain CIO Role at Merged Air India
Just before the integration of Vistara into Air India on Nov 12, the new top-level designations at the merged airline have been decided upon. Vinod Kannan, the CEO of Vistara, who will continue to be the Chief Integration Officer for the full service airlines' merger, will be on the management committee, reporting to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson.
Vistara chief commercial officer Deepak Rajawat will be the chief financial officer at the newly-enlarged Air India Express, reporting to CEO Aloke Singh. He will also support Group CFO Sanjay Sharma in strategic initiatives and projects. Vikas Agarwal, current CFO of Air India Express, moves to a new role within Air India.
Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh gets Captain Hamish Maxwell of Vistara as an adviser, and Captain Pushpinder Singh returns to the cockpit and assumes the office of chief operations officer at Air India Express.
Chief Financial Officer Niyant Maru, who went past his superannuation date to guarantee the merger process was over, would retire at the end of his present term. Deepa Chadha and Vinod Bhatt would also move to Tata group companies into senior positions as SVP HR & corporate affairs and chief information officer at Vistara respectively.
All other Air India Group CXO roles, including reporting lines, remain unaltered. The company announced the transitions, saying, according to Campbell Wilson, "Over the past two years the four Tata airlines have worked hard to prepare for and execute one of the most complex mergers in aviation history, consolidating from four airlines to two in the context of dramatic growth and wholesale transformation".
As we now near the end of that process, we are pleased to be formalizing a Group leadership comprising colleagues from all four antecedent airlines to drive the next phase of our journey. I would also like to thank all those who, whether they were retiring or moving into other roles within the Tata group, contributed so much to the process of consolidation, but over many years, to the DNA of what is now the new Air India.