Top SpiceJet official Sudhakar Kondisetty resigns

According to sources, the airline may see the exit of some more 'highly-paid' executives in the coming months due to focus on cost-rationalisation

Sudhakar Kondisetty quit as SpiceJet’s senior vice-president for information technology. He is the second top executive to step down in less than a month after the new owner, Ajay Singh, came on board.

The airline may see the exit of some more highly-paid executives in the coming months due to focus on cost-rationalisation, sources told PTI.

Earlier, SpiceJet chief commercial officer Kaneswaran Avili too had left the carrier on April 10 on the grounds that he wanted to pursue “certain entrepreneurial opportunities”.

Kondisetty had moved to SpiceJet in April last year, when the then promoter Kalanithi Maran announced appointment of a series of senior-level executives at the carrier.

Ajay Singh, a co-founder of SpiceJet who exited the airline in 2010, took back its control after acquiring the entire 58.46 per cent stake of Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways Pvt. Ltd in February as part of a revival plan.

As part of the plan, approved by the Civil Aviation Ministry, Singh has committed an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the carrier.

"We expect a few more highly-paid senior executives to leave the airline in the coming months as the new owner's focus is going to be on cost-rationalisation in the current fiscal," the sources said.

Of his Rs 1,500-crore investment plan in SpiceJet, Singh has already pumped in Rs 500 crore.

Immediately after injecting the first tranche of Rs 500 crore and taking over the ownership, Singh had hinted at bringing in new people into the airline's management.

"We are looking around for some senior management. But we are not making massive changes in the airline at the moment," he had said in late February.