As Ilker Ayci backs off, will Tata Group get freedom to appoint Air India honcho it really likes?

On March 1, 2022, Ilker Ayci, who was announced to be the top boss of the Tata Group’s newest acquisition, Air India, announced he will not be taking up the top job.

In a statement issued by him, Ayci mentioned, “My appointment as (CEO of) Air India within Tata Group was announced earlier in February, with a start date of April 1. Since the announcement, I have been sadly following news in some sections of the media attempting to colour my appointment with undesirable colours.”

Ayci was clearly on his way to Air India, as he had resigned from Turkish Airlines a day before the acquisition of Air India by the Tata Group was signed off in India.

This statement might or might not be the complete picture, but his way of making an honourable exit from the situation. The reality is far more complicated.

The Tata Group had enlisted the services of global executive search firm Egon Zehnder for the appointment of the CEO at Air India.

As per various reports, they came back with five names, and the Tata Group chose to roll out the offer to the Turkish national. There could be various reasons to choose him, while he is considerably green between his ears when it comes to aviation, having spent only six years in the business at Turkish Airlines.

The Tata Group had announced the appointment before the first address of the group chairman N Chandrasekaran to Air India employees. However, in the rush to make an appointment, the group, and the search firm did not game out the political implications of rolling out an offer to him.

Ilker has been an advisor to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose statements have strained relationships between India and Turkey recently. He was also linked by foreign media reports to financiers of terror outfit Al-Qaida.

After the surprise choice of Ayci was announced, the Indian media published his background with all the information which should have already been known to the group as well as the search firm, and political outfits called upon the government of India to block Ayci’s appointment due to the previous political links.

Even if the group did not know about his leanings or connections, it would have come out when the Ministry of Home Affairs would have conducted a background check on Ayci, who is a foreign national and hence needs a security clearance to head the airline in India.

This is not new for the Tata Group though. Last year, the group appointed Mark Llistosella to the CEO & MD position at Tata Motors, and a month later, he declined the job. The specifics of his declining the job are not made public, and the company remains without a CEO since.

Tata Group will have to search for a new head for AI

The Tata Group might have to go back to the drawing board again, but this is the first reality check for any other person who might be considered for the top job.

In India, most high-visibility posts such as that of Air India’s CEO will come with added scrutiny before and on the job. While in other countries the airline CEO is left to do their job, which is to increase customer and shareholder value, they will also have the burden of managing political expectations at Air India. That might not be a challenge that many expatriates may be willing to bet their reputation on.

India not best hunting ground for airline CEOs

While India is not the best hunting ground for someone already with the experience of turning around an airline, the next time the head hunters should look at possible fitment with the group ethos as well as look at creating a whole management team structure which will need to be hired to run the airline on an ongoing basis. In which case, the CEO could be from the Tata Group itself, or an able number two at another airline in India, supported by aviation experts in the other positions such as Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, etc.

As for Air India, the wait for a turnaround will be a bit longer then. But they might have dodged a bullet. Any international CEO would like to go home at some point in time, and a 3-4 years contract would just not be enough time to turn around Air India and seed it for future growth. And Ayci should be happy that his work at Air India, won’t be scrutinised by the Indian media anymore.

(Ajay Awtaney writes about Indian Aviation on livefromalounge.com and tweets from @LiveFromALounge)