Every time, Harpreet A De Singh overcame a challenge, she also broke a glass ceiling. In 1988, when she was just 22, she joined Air India as its first-ever woman pilot.
She began flying since her days in the NCC, commanded the Prime Minister's Guard of Honour and won a scholarship to get her commercial license from the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Amethi. And if has left littered glass shards along the way, it is hardly a surprise.
"It was a big thing to have made it to Air India," Harpreet recounts in a conversation with Moneycontrol. Indeed, it was a dream come true for this daughter of an Indian Air Force officer, already a trail blazer of considerable repute by then.
She made headlines and was featured in newspapers and magazines, including India Today.
But even trailblazers can hardly claim a smooth ride. "It was like fate wanted to put fresh obstacles in my path and wanted to test me," says Harpreet.
A medical issue meant that she couldn't fly with Air India. Not the one to be deterred, she went to the US, re-validated her flying license and even trained to become an instructor, one of the toughest jobs in aviation. That is how she made a comeback and re-joined Air India, in 1994.
"I was the first lady ground instructor for pilots. I was teaching my batch mates who had trained with me as a pilot. I was also instructing those twice my age," says Harpreet. Slowly, but surely, she started a corporate career that would take her to the very top, and on the way up, shatter many more barriers, once considered a strict no-no for women.
On November 1, 2020, the Government of India appointed her as the CEO of Alliance Air, the regional arm of Air India. She is the first women CEO of Alliance Air, also a first for any major airline in the country.
It's a rare moment both in India, and globally.
Though Indian aviation now has the highest proportion of women pilots in the world - 12.4 percent of aviators in the country are women, much above the global average of 5.4 percent - the appointment of one to head a domestic airline, is also a first. Globally too, about 95 percent of airlines are run by men.
The 360 degree experience
So what does it take to become a CEO?
"Be open to taking up new opportunities and challenges," says Harpreet, who points out that women have been typecast in human resource, communication and commercial roles in companies. "Being a pilot, instructor, engineer, safety analyst...all technical jobs were forbidden zones for women," says the 54-year-old CEO, who is also President of the Indian Women Pilots' Association.
In her 30-year career at Air India, Harpreet made sure she made the most of each opportunity that came her way. A look at her career graph illustrates the point.
After breaking the barrier in the training department, Harpreet donned roles in operations, navigation, handled crew resource management, wrote standard operating procedures (SOPs) for pilots, did flight planning and dispatch, and also introduced a new flight planning system that helped the airline save fuel, the highest cost component for any air carrier.
She also conceptualised Angels of Air India, made up of 500 volunteers who were recently involved in providing help to the victims and families of the Air India Express crash that took place in August last year.
In 2004, she set up and headed the quality management system department. "A safety auditor with IOSA - global industry organisation International Air Transport Association’s (IATAs) safety audit programme - I got a 360 degree view of the organisation," says Harpreet, who was also part of the safety committee of Star Alliance, the world's largest global alliance of airlines.
In 2015, she was appointed Executive Director, Chief of Flight Safety in Air India, again shattering a glass ceiling.
A senior Air India pilot concurs. "She was very active. It was common to see her involved in several initiatives, even beyond her department."
Like when a new aircraft was inducted into the fleet, Harpreet would check out the cabins, sit with the engineers and get her hands dirty to understand the machine. "There is a child like enthusiasm to learn," the pilot, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, added.
The new CEO
Harpreet has now brought the same experience, and enthusiasm, in her chief executive role at Alliance Air.
She took charge of Alliance Air in November, at a time when the aviation industry was still picking up its pieces from the impact of COVID-19. Though domestic flights had resumed in May, demand was yet to be generated.
"COVID-19's impact has been severe. Like other airlines, we have also incurred losses. We are looking to turn around operations and first get back to pre-COVID-19 levels. It is slow and steady growth," says Harpreet.
Ironically, the pandemic burst on the scene just when Alliance Air had made an operating profit of Rs 65 crore in the 2020 financial year. The CEO, naturally, wants to get back to that level.
Traffic picking up
The last few months have seen air passenger traffic picking up, with many airlines carrying over 70 percent passenger loads. Alliance Air, too, is on the right flight path.
"Pre-COVID-19, we had 61 stations. Right now we are at 45. We will keep on increasing it as and when government also increases the cap on capacity utilisation, (which stands at 80 percent, right now)," she says.
Meanwhile, the CEO has used this time to expand the regional airline's reach. "We have introduced new sectors, and gone into pure commercial routes including Mumbai-Goa and Mysore-Bengaluru," points out Harpreet.
The airline has also expanded on UDAN or Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik, India’s regional connectivity scheme, which is backed by the government subsidy.
On March 1, Alliance Air started services from Bilaspur. It already introduced flights from Agatti Island in Lakshadweep, and increased frequency on routes like Bhuj and Jamnagar. Through all this, Harpeet is also adding to the airline's fleet with plans to induct three more aircraft this year.
March 8, the Women's Day, is going to be a milestone. Not only will Alliance Air begin operations from Bareilly to Delhi, it will also be a flight, which will be operated by women, in Toto. "It is a first for Alliance Air. We will have all women crew operating flights in all the four regions of the country on March 8," says Harpreet.
For the CEO it's not just about good optics. "We need to bond as a team and also perform," says Harpreet. She knows all about teamwork and personal brilliance.