Air India has sacked Pawan Arora as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air India Express, its low budget airline, less than two months after his controversial appointment. Official sources said the cash-strapped state-owned airline's Board of Directors decided to ‘dispense with’ the services of Arora at its recent meeting which went into the issue of top level appointments in Air India Express.
Regarding another controversial appointment of Stefan Sukumar as the airline's Chief of Training, the Board decided to set up a committee to study the procedural aspects of his entry, directing that a report on the matter be submitted within a fortnight. The Board however approved the appointment of Kamaljeet Rattan as the Chief Information Officer.
Controversy broke out over the appointment of Arora and Sukumar in September-end this year amid reports that both did not fulfill the minimum requirements for the posts. The controversy over Arora's appointment as Air India Express COO erupted following reports that he had not qualified as the Flight Operations Instructor in DGCA.
It was also reported that appointment letter of Arora was issued even before the Board had approved it during its meeting on September 27, 2010. Arora was previously with Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines among other airlines after he left the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Similarly, the selection of Stefan Sukumar as Chief of Training came under scrutiny following reports that he was an instructor for A-300 and A-310 aircraft, both of which are not in Air India's fleet which is dominated by Boeing B-777s and A-320s.
DGCA rules state that an airline's Training Chief should be an approved examiner on the type of aircraft which is in the fleet and should be a permanent employee of the airline and not on contract. In case the airline has a mixed fleet, the training in-charge should be a DGCA approved examiner on aircraft type of highest category in the fleet, as per the rules.
Air India unions had opposed these appointments, not only on procedural grounds, but also on the huge pay packages they were offered by the ailing national carrier at the time when it was delaying the payment of salaries and allowances to its employees.
The meeting came little over a fortnight after four independent Directors of the Air India Board discussed the airline's financial position and the recent controversial appointments with T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
The Board also approved sale of four 20-year old A-310 freighter aircraft and decided to release their crew and engineering manpower for new types of aircraft.