 "AirAsia India appoints Amar Abrol as new CEO; Chandilya to go")
Chandilya would continue with the airline until the end of April to ensure a smooth transition of the CEO role.
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Abrol, who has over 20 years of experience, was most recently the CEO of Tune Money, a startup that aims to deliver low-cost financial products in South East Asia.
Chandilya has led AirAsia India from June 1, 2013 and under his leadership, the airline has established a fleet of six aircraft, covering 12 routes and carrying over 1.8 million passengers.
In the October-December 2015 quarter of operation, AirAsia India clocked a 134 per cent growth in passenger traffic as it flew over half-a-million customers, and operated 3,376 flights as compared to 1,444 flights in the same period of 2014.
Before joining Tune Money in 2013, Abrol spent 19 years with American Express, leading diverse teams across multiple markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, India and Malaysia.
Born and raised in India, Abrol graduated from Delhi University and is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Commenting on the appointment, AirAsia India Chairman S Ramadorai said, "Mittu Chandilya led the airline team from the front through its launch and establishment in an intensely competitive market.
"The Board deeply appreciates his contribution. In Abrol, we have a strong successor, with years of experience in customer delivery, which will be critical to the airline's future. Together with his senior management team, we are confident that Abrol will lead AirAsia India into its next stage of growth."
Abrol said: "AirAsia India is poised for strong growth. I look forward to leading the team and together, giving many more Indians the opportunity to access the exciting promise of Indian civil aviation."
AirAsia India today also announced the appointment of Ankur Khanna as the Chief Financial Officer and Kiran Jain as the head of Commercial.
Khanna joins from Air France/KLM, where he recently headed Regional Finance for the Middle East/Gulf region based in Dubai.
Jain has over 25 years of aviation-related experience covering airports, airlines and duty free. Jain most recently headed the Airport Marketing and Route Development function at Delhi International Airport.
Chandilya said: "The past three years has been a rewarding and enriching journey for me and AirAsia India. I am delighted that AirAsia India is today a customer-preferred airline in the sectors that it operates. I will truly miss each member in our young organisation without whose passion and energy none of this would be possible.
"Look at how quickly we grew. I started with two planes
in Malaysia. But I did not have a 5/20 rule. I was not sued every day. I did not have Naresh Goyal on my back. How long I have been in India? Two years. How long has the government of India been around? You have been a country of a long time, right? Wait, patience. Must not rush," Fernandes said.
He said he needed to know what the government's aviation policy was going to be before expanding AirAsia India's fleet and network.
AirAsia India, which started operations in June 2014, is co-owned by Tata Sons (49 per cent) and AirAsia Berhad (49 per cent). The rest of two per cent is held by airline's board members S Ramadorai and R Venkataramanan. The airline flies to 10 domestic destinations with a fleet of six Airbus A320 aircraft.
"I have to congratulate (the government). ... It (doing away with 5/20 rule) is a good step forward for Indian aviation and hopefully most of the measures (proposed in the policy) will be going to be enforced," Fernandes said.
The new aviation policy, announced last month, did away with the 5/20 rule which allowed global operations by an Indian carrier having 20 aircraft and five years of domestic operations. The policy now allows overseas operations by any Indian airline with 20 aircraft which keeps aside 20 per cent of its fleet exclusively for domestic operations.
The proposed regional connectivity scheme was also a good step just like the Government's decision to come up with regional airports which would bring down airport charges, which at present along with taxes on jet fuel are "too high," he said.
Terming the policy as "quite impressive," the AirAsia group chief said India also needed to open up in terms of international traffic rights.
Fernandes also said he wanted to expand Malaysian carrier AirAsia's operations into India.
"We (AirAsia) would love to go to many more Indian cities but Indian government is not giving us any more route rights at the moment. So, I think that is something the government has to look at.
"They (government) are very worried about Middle East and all it, they are trying to protect Air India, and I think that comes at a cost, at the cost tourism and jobs. So we will wait and see whether India (government) give us more rights. Right now, we have fully exploited all traffic rights and we cannot do any more," he added.