InterGlobe Aviation Limited, which owns and operates low cost airline IndiGo, has named global aviation professional Ronojoy Dutta as its new CEO. The position was lying vacant since the resignation of the former CEO Aditya Ghosh in April 2018. IndiGo co-founder Rahul Bhatia was holding charge as interim CEO during the period.
Mr. Dutta had joined IndiGo in December 2018 as principal consultant and was entrusted with the task to draw the airline’s five-year growth plan. In the Q3 results conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Mr. Bhatia had stated that the new CEO would be appointed ‘fairly soon.’
Mr. Dutta was president of United Airlines, where he worked for nearly twenty years, holding a broad spectrum of senior leadership positions including senior V-P, planning, senior V-P maintenance, V-P finance and V-P information technology.
Advisory role
He was an adviser to the restructuring of Air Canada and US Airways, and was engaged in long-term consulting contracts with Hawaiian Airlines and Air Canada. Mr. Dutta also has experience in the aviation industry in India, having served as the president of Air Sahara for two years.
He has served on the boards of United Airlines, US Airways and Marsico Trust Funds. He has a degree in Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a degree in Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Rahul Bhatia, co-founder and interim CEO of IndiGo, said: “We are very pleased that Rono is joining the IndiGo team. His enormous and varied experience and understanding of the complexities of the airline industry will be invaluable as IndiGo embarks on its next phase of growth.”
Mr. Dutta said: “IndiGo has had phenomenal success in establishing itself as a world class airline. It is blessed to be operating in one of the highest growth economies of the world, and this opens up future opportunities for rapid growth.”
The airline also appointed former SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran as an independent non-executive director and the chairman of the board. He has replaced late M.D. Mallya, who was the first chairman and independent non-executive director of the company since it was listed on the Indian stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, the airline has announced plans to start international flights from Kannur to Doha daily and to Kuwait six days a week effective March 15, 2019. Starting January 25 the airline will fly daily non-stop flights from Kannur to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Hubli, the airline said.