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Ashwani Lohani took charge on Monday of Air India, the central government-owned airline, as chairman and managing director (CMD).
His first challenge will be a threatened stir by his pilots. Lohani, a 1980-batch officer of the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers, was till now heading the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation. He is credited with helping to revive growth in tourist traffic in and to that state.
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After a little over a decade, AI will be headed by someone outside the Indian Administrative Service. Lohani replaced Rohit Nandan, on an extension since last year. On the day he took over, his pilots' union asked its members not to extend their duty in case of a flight delay.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has norms on the hours of rest a pilot must get between flights and on the number of takeoffs and landings in a month. The pilots are resorting to this after the airline decided to put commanders out of the 'workmen' category of the Industrial Disputes Act. With this, the commanders can no longer be part of trade unions, their service conditions can be changed and they will not be able to raise a dispute against their employers.
Earlier in August, a section of AI's pilots were, in protest at the move, reporting late to work, thereby delaying the flights. AI has 650 commanders and 550 co-pilots.
Apart from the pilots’ issue, Lohani will have the task to turn around the financially struggling carrier. The government has been infusing capital into it: Rs 2,500 crore in 2015-16, Rs 5,780 crore in 2014-15, and Rs 6,000 crore each in 2012-13 and 2013-14. That apart, the government, in this year's supplementary demand for grants, provided Rs 800 crore as additional equity infusion.
In the previous National Democratic Alliance government, Lohani was CMD of of India Tourism Development Corporation.
He was reportedly moved out for opposing equity divestment of ITDC’s flagship hotel in Delhi, the Ashok. This had happened when the the hotel's finances were improving. He had held the post between July 2001 and December 2002.
