GoAir sees 2 high level exits within months of Prock Schauer's resignation

Two senior GoAir executives have quit the airline within months of the exit of its chief executive officer Wolfgang Prock Schauer.

Those stepping down include airline's chief financial officer Krishnan Balakrishnan and its vice president (finance) Silveria Dsouza.  In January, Prock Schauer joined rival airline IndiGo as its chief operating officer after two and half year stint at GoAir.

Balakrishnan, who previously worked together with Prock Schauer in Jet Airways, is said to be joining an airline in the Gulf region. Currently, he is serving notice period. Dsouza's next move is not known.

GoAir did not respond to an email query on the topic.

The Mumbai-headquartered airline which has a market share of  9.5 per cent has been seeing a churn in its management resulting in resignations of mid and top-level executives from various departments.

The airline is yet to finalise a chief executive officer and chief commercial officer – the latter post is vacant after the incumbent CCO  Anand Sahai moved out last December.

In February, it appointed Jyri Strandman, a former executive of US-based Spirit Airlines, as its chief operating officer. Strandman will be responsible for strengthening airline's flight operations, engineering,  flight safety, in-flight service, GoAir had said in its announcement.

The latest exits of its finance executives come at a time when the airline is facing issues with its  Airbus A320Neo planes. Two of its thirteen A320Neos are grounded following Directorate General of Civil Aviation order and the issue has resulted in delays in the launch of airline's maiden international flight.

GoAir made a net profit of Rs 2.05 billion in FY 17 which was 36 per cent higher than the previous year. Profit from sale and lease back of planes boosted the result.

GoAir's growth has been modest in comparison with its peers and the airline added its 20th aircraft last June. Currently, it has a fleet of 32 A320 planes including 13 A320Neos.

In the last financial year, it made a net addition of four Airbus A320 planes that yielded a 20 per cent increase in operating revenue to Rs 3,309 crore. Meanwhile, the airline added Hyderabad to its network and launched new flights from Kolkata to Jaipur and Ahmedabad.