Air India top brass, independent directors on collision course

A fight is underway between the management and independent directors of Air India over the continuation of Pawan Arora as the chief operating officer of the low-cost Air India Express.

The directors had asked the management at a board meeting last month to relieve Arora of his duties. Two government nominees on the board had supported this decision.

They had said that Arora’s pay packet was exorbitant and had also alleged that there were some discrepancies in his previous service record.

But till date, the Air India management has not acted on this decision and Arora continues to discharge functions as the COO of Air India Express.

Alarmed by the non-compliance, the civil aviation ministry has written a letter to Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav (pictured), asking him to sack Arora.

An official source confirmed that the letter was written on Monday and the airline management will have no option but to act on it soon.

“They may say things like Arora serving his notice period etc but none of this will be tolerated. The board has taken a decision and it should be implemented.”

Jadhav did not respond to a query on this issue.

A spokesperson of the carrier said he was “not aware of any such communication.”

In the past, airline sources have averred that the decision taken at the last board meeting was not binding since “the meeting itself was not conducted as per rules. You can’t just say a COO has been sacked. A resolution has to be moved and then passed by a majority — nothing of the kind happened at the board meeting.”
The airline management has been defending Arora’s appointment, saying his salary of Rs3.6 crore for three years was in line with what senior AI pilots get. It has also rubbished allegations of any discrepancies in Arora’s service record.

Meanwhile, the official source said another meeting of the board of directors is scheduled to be held in Mumbai on the 29th of this month and the Arora issue will certainly figure in it.

The source said no decision had as yet been taken by the airline on what is to be done with chief training officer Stefan Sukumar, whose appointment was also put up for review at the last meeting. Both Arora and Sukumar were appointed at the behest of Air India COO Gustav Baldauf.