Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation chief Ashwani Lohani, credited with reviving tourism in the state, will head struggling government carrier Air India. The appointments committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Lohani, a 1980 batch officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, as chairman and managing director of Air India, for three years.
After over a decade, Air India will be headed by someone outside the Indian Administrative Service. Before Lohani, J N Gogoi, the airline’s engineering director, held charge as acting managing director in 2001-2003.
Lohani was also chairman and managing director of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and showed turnaround with profits.
Lohani has succeeded Rohit Nandan at Air India. The appointment comes at a time when the government is finding it difficult to make the airline more sustainable. The government has been continuously infusing capital into Air India: Rs 2,500 crore in 2015-16, Rs 5,780 crore in 2014-15, and Rs 6,000 crore each in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
That apart, the government, in its supplementary demand for grants, provided Rs 800 crore as additional equity infusion.
The government expects that the airline will achieve operational profits in 2016-2017.
A graduate engineer from Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Lohani was formerly the chief administrative officer at the Indian Railways Organisation for Alternate Fuels division for the ministry of railways. He was also chief mechanical engineer at Northern Railway and a fellow at the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.
