Three months after Sanjay Aggarwal resigned as chief executive officer (CEO) of SpiceJet, the airline announced the appointment of Neil Raymond Mills as the CEO.
Mills has joined SpiceJet from another low-cost carrier, the Dubai-based Flydubai, where he was the Chief Financial officer. “Most recently, Neil was the part of the start up team for Flydubai and saw the airline grow from a planning stage to nine operating aircraft in 18 months,” said a company statement.
Mills was earlier with easyJet for 12 years in different roles. During his tenure there, the airline grew from four to 174 aircraft. Sanjay Aggarwal’s 20-month stint as CEO ended in July. He resigned after Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran’s Kal Airways Pvt Ltd acquired a 37.7 per cent stake in the airline, making an open offer to buy an additional 20 per cent from shareholders.
Under Aggarwal, the Guagaon-based SpiceJet turned profitable for the first time in its five years of operations, in 2009-10, making a profit of Rs 61 crore. Under Aggarwal, it grew from 94 daily flights to 16 cities with 15 Boeing-737 aircraft to 137 daily flights to 19 cities with 21 Boeing-737 planes.
Mills is taking charge at a time when the airline is expanding domestic as well as international operations. The carrier has ordered 30 Boeing aircraft to be delivered between 2014 and 2018. It has planned to have 50 aircraft by 2014.