Dutta's tryst with airline cockpits: One went bankrupt, another was sold

Ronojoy (Rono) Dutta’s tryst with Indian aviation began when Ashok Saikia, a key aide in then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s office, called him one day, requesting him to fly down to India for a fortnight. He was asked to share his views on how to improve services of Indian Airlines and Air India.

Dutta, who was working as a consultant for airlines like US Airways and Air Canada after quitting as president of United Airlines, agreed. He met the airlines’ brass and recommended that the two carriers be merged. But his interactions with the government led to speculation that if a merger happened, he might be chosen for the top job. Dutta admitted to the media that something could have worked out but the government was taking a lot of time to take a decision on merger.

Soon news was out that he might move out of the US. Naresh Goyal invited him to London. Subrata Roy too called him to Kolkata. 

Dutta hit off well with Roy in the first meeting as he was not asked anything on aviation. Rather, they were discussing Hindu philosophy and Vivekananda, an area of interest for Dutta. And before Dutta knew, he was offered the top job in Air Sahara. This was in 2004.

Dutta, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kha­rag­pur, started working with Voltas in Bengaluru and Kochi, before going to Harvard Business School in 1978. After Harvard, he worked at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he met Rakesh Gangwal (current promoter of IndiGo) with whom he would work again.

He, however, got his big opportunity when he joined United Airlines where, in 17 years, he cruised to the post of president in 1999, lording over the world’s largest airline with over 560 planes. But it was a roller-coaster ride. His most traumatic experience was on September 11, 2001, when a United Airlines flight lost contact and terrorists took it over. Dutta would remain in office for the next five days, handling logistics of millions of passengers. 

Yet, the incident made a huge financial dent on an airline whose operational costs were already hitting highs. The firm went down and Dutta was blamed for failing to turn it around and forcing it into bankruptcy.

Later, in a conversation with Business Standard, Dutta blamed it on the unions. He said he had put together a scheme to reduce costs by $2 billion, which meant everyone had to take a 30 per cent salary cut, but unions that owned equity in the airline were not ready to play ball, giving him no option but to quit.

In his short stint in Air Sahara, which had ambitions to beat Jet Airways, also he was unable to stem the company’s decline and after about two years it was time to say good bye, especially as Roy decided to sell the airline lock, stock, and barrel to Jet.

During his interaction with this paper, Dutta, who was brought up in Shillong, had said he wanted to combine learnings of Plato — who looked at finding answers of how to lead our lives externally — with that of Patanjali — on how to discover peace within. It’s this combination which could work magic for him in IndiGo.