Swadeshi impulses in Indian civil aviation

The Air India crash and the Indigo mass cancellations and delays that shook India’s aviation space last year have caused churn in the country’s two leading airlines.

- Anjuli Bhargava

While market leader IndiGo has bid farewell to its Dutch chief executive officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers, there are reports that Air India is looking to replace CEO Campbell Wilson. Such changes at the top may likely spur exits of other senior management executives — quite a few were brought in by the two expatriates, a common practice in other businesses also.

As the hunt for their replacements begins, civil aviation analysts and experts say they believe the carriers might be better off looking domestically, and not for expats, a trend that has marked leadership in the country’s aviation landscape for long. Many of the experts feel this doesn’t align with the current realities of the space.

Let me elaborate. In the 1980s and 1990s, talent at home was limited, used toa publicsector work ethic and environment, and unexposed to global realities. It was primarily expat CEOs —with experience of working ina market-forces-led environment—who set the tone for many of the early players in sucha milieu.

Jet Airways mostly operated with a dual control centre — an expat CEO who had cut their teeth in business overseas and acted as the face of the company, and an Indian counterpart who kept a lower profile but was equally crucial to the running of the airline in the Indian environment, dealing with the government (always a task that calls for specific skills, tact and contacts).