Tata Sons executive chairman N Chandrasekaran has been officially designated as the chairman of Air India, the airline that Tata Group just bought from the central government. According to reports, the selection of a new CEO for the once state-owned airline is also anticipated to be done shortly.
Despite being designated the airline’s CEO last month, Air India confirmed earlier this month that former Turkish Airlines CEO Ilker Ayci will not assume the lead.
Ayci, who managed major cost-cutting at Turkish Airlines, was appointed as the debt-ridden carrier’s first foreign CEO in mid-February after Tata Group acquired it back from the government after 69 years of state control.
In February, Tata Sons’ executive chairman, Chandrasekaran, was reappointed for another five years. He joined Tata Sons’ board in 2016 and became Chairman in 2017 at a time when the group was in crisis following the ouster of his predecessor Cyrus Mistry in a surprise boardroom coup led by Ratan Tata, who heads Tata Trusts, a collection of philanthropic organizations that own a 66 percent stake in Tata Sons.
