Former Go Air CEO Wolfgang to join IndiGo as Chief Operating Officer

Former Go Air CEO Wolfgang Prock Schauer will join IndiGo as Chief Operating Officer. Prock Schauer had quit Go Air in 2017.

Prock-Schauer will take charge of IndiGo's operational aspects including flight operations, maintenance, engineering and in-flight services. He will also be responsible for the airline's airport services. Prock-Schauer in his new role will report to IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh.

The appointment of Prock Schauer also signals the strengthening of the management team at IndiGo as it begins its next chapter of growth of regional and long-haul operations.

Prior to joining GoAir, Prock-Schauer, an Austrian held the position of CEO and executive director of Air Berlin, a German airline carrying over 32 million passengers annually, with 140 aircraft operations. He also served as CEO of Jet Airways from 2003 to 2009 after which he left to join Lufthansa-owned British Midland in UK.

With the size of operations growing steadily, IndiGo is looking to tap into expat airline executives as it increasingly finds it difficult to find skilled professionals at home. Over the last one year, at least four executives from foreign major airlines have joined the airline in crucial positions. During its initial years, IndiGo had hired expats like Bruce Ashby, Steve Harfst as CEO and COO.

IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 153 aircraft operates around 1,000 daily flights to 49 destinations. It also has around 400 aircrafts on order.

Primary among them is Cindy Szadokierski who has around 17 years of experience in different roles at United has been assigned a primary role for airport operations. 

Another expat executive Greg Taylor has joined the airline as Executive Vice President in revenue management. Taylor who served in senior roles at US Airways and United Airlines has handled scheduling, cost optimization and revenue management in his career.

Similarly, former Air Asia executive Jason Herter has joined the airline as Vice president in the OCC and Dispatch department. Herter was responsible for handling crew management including scheduling, rostering and training for all five airlines of the AirAsia group.

As it grows operations, IndiGo has been facing many hiccups in the journey like maintain a high on-time performance, healthy passenger load in all the sectors.