Top AI officials will defend Arora's appointment

Air India's top management has decided to take on the civil aviation ministry and defend the appointment of Air India Express Chief Operating Officer (COO) Pawan Arora. The ministry had written to the national carrier's board to reconsider its decision of appointing Arora to the top job due to controversies over his past record.

“The civil aviation ministry is raking up the issue unnecessarily by raising questions over the appointment and all other new appointments. These had been ratified. Independent directors had also been a part of the whole process and had never objected to any move in any of the board meetings,” a senior Air India official said on condition of anonymity.

“The committee to select the COO of Air India, Gustav Baldauf, was headed by civil aviation secretary M M Nambiar and committees and sub-committees to select (COO of Air India Express) Arora and some other new officials had independent directors as their members. All of them were ratified by the board. So, why is Air India at fault if there are any problems now?” the official asked.

Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav is meeting officials at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday to clarify the issues raised. Arora will also attend the meeting.

Questions have been raised over Arora’s flight instructor licence not being renewed and he being terminated from a flight operations inspector's job in the DGCA — the very reason the ministry asked the Air India broad to reconsider his appointment.

However, the AI official said: “Arora applied to be relieved of his duty due to personal reasons and was duly relieved by the competent authority. Even after being relieved of his duty, he was asked to continue, providing assistance to DGCA without the designation and he signed letters even after the day he was relieved.”

On the other charges of Arora’s flight instructor’s licence not being renewed after an application was made by his previous employer IndiGo, the official said: “The list came after the announcement of Arora being made COO of AI Express. So, DGCA might not have found any reason to renew his licence as he was leaving the private airline. Also, no reason was given by them for not renewing it.”

The official pointed out that, above all, Arora met all criteria set for the COO's post and was the best person available for the management post.

What has now given a new twist to the imbroglio is the fact that independent directors of Air India – who met T K A Nair, principal secretary to the Prime Minister – are believed to have raised questions on the appointment of Arora, even as Air India's top management maintains the same independent directors were very much in the know.

Air India cancels meet
PTI adds: The meeting of top Air India officials, convened against the backdrop of controversy over some key appointments in the company, was cancelled at the last minute this evening, sources said. “The meeting of top management convened this evening was cancelled as CMD Arvind Jadhav left for Bangalore from Delhi just before the meeting was scheduled to begin at 3.30 pm,” airline sources said.