MUMBAI, India — A former
Turkish Airlines boss who
oversaw extensive cost-cutting, Ilker Ayci, was on Monday named as the new head
of loss-making and newly-privatized Air India, owners Tata group said.
اضافة اعلان
Ayci's appointment makes him the airline's
first foreign CEO and Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran said in a statement
he "would lead Air India into the new era".
Tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata bought back
the flag carrier — which it originally set up — in a 180-billion-rupee
($2.4-billion) deal in January after 69 years under state ownership.
Once similarly state-owned, Turkish Airlines
was privatized in the mid-2000s and subsequently transformed into a major
international player, one of few global airlines to reliably make profits.
Ayci — who is close to Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan — was appointed chairman in 2015 and the following year
described his firm as "one of the most profitable airlines in the
world" over the previous decade.
Loss-making Air India is the direct
opposite: a monumental burden on the public purse for decades, consuming 1.1
trillion rupees ($14.7 billion) in public money since 2009.
Ayci, 51, stepped down from his Turkish
Airlines post last month.
The coronavirus pandemic plunged his firm
into losses of $836 million in 2020, but it returned to profit in the first
nine months of 2021, with analysts crediting a focus on freight cargo and
cutting employee costs.
In a
CEOWorld Magazine column last year,
Ayci himself said his airline had achieved "what most other airlines could
not" by cutting costs and capital expenditure during the pandemic.
Whether he will be able to turn around the
notoriously challenged Air India remains to be seen.
"We will utilize the strong heritage of
Air India to make it one of the best airlines in the world with a uniquely
superior flying experience that reflects Indian warmth and hospitality,"
Ayci said in a statement.
He was an advisor to Erdogan in 1994 and the
Turkish president acted as a witness at Ayci's wedding in 2018.
The Tata group now operates four separate
airlines in India and is imposing wholesale change at the top of Air India as
it seeks to revive the ailing airline.
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