Four independent directors on the board of India’s national carrier have conveyed their concerns over the functioning of the airline to a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a direct challenge to the leadership of Arvind Jadhav the company’s chairman and managing director.
The directors, which include two industrialists, a former chief of the Indian Air Force and a senior industry lobbyist, met the principal secretary to the prime minister, TKA Nair, on Monday to convey their opposition to recent appointments made by the Air India board and what they described as the failure of the management to deal with problems arising from the merger of Air India, the international carrier, with its domestic arm Indian Airlines. The combined entity is known as Air India.
The disaffected directors also complained about what they described as the “lackadaisical attitude” of the top management to the slow progress of a turnaround plan for the loss-making airline.
Air India is currently undertaking a debt restructuring exercise that is expected to be approved by the Reserve Bank of India by November.