Home ministry to 'scrupulously' check Air India CEO background

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will "scrupulously" carry out a thorough background check of newly appointed CEO and MD of Air India, Ilker Ayci, a Turkish national, official sources said on Sunday.

The Tata Group, which acquired the Air India from the government, had recently announced Ayci's appointment as the CEO and MD of the loss-making airlines.

The Home Ministry "scrupulously" carries out a thorough background check of all foreign nationals when they are appointed in the key positions of any Indian company, the sources said.

It will be the same process for the newly appointed CEO and MD too, they said.

However, the MHA has not yet received any communication on Ayci from either the Tata group or the Civil Aviation Ministry, the nodal ministry. Once a communication is received, the whole process of security clearance will begin, the sources said.

Since, Ayci is a Turkish national, the MHA is expected to take help from the external intelligence agency, R&AW, for his background check.

Ayci was an advisor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when the latter was

mayor of Istanbul, from 1994 to 1998.

He had served the Turkish Airlines as its chairman from 2015 to 2022 and was credited with turning the airline around.