Bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt appointed as CMD of Air India

New Delhi, January 18, 2022

Senior bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt was today appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of national carrier Air India.

Dutt is an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of the 1993 batch and is currently serving in his home UT cadre.

"Vikram Dev Dutt, lAS (UT:93), presently in the cadre, (has been appointed) as Chairman & Managing Director, Air India Ltd., Ministry of Civil Aviation in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary," a notification from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) said after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) had approved several senior-level appointments today.

Dutt will take over from Rajiv Bansal, who is the Union Civil Aviation Secretary and is also holding the position of CMD of Air India.

The appointment comes at a time when the Government is preparing to hand over the loss-making public sector airline to the Tatas, which had won the bid for the company as part of the disinvestment programme.

The Government had, on October 8, announced that Talace Pvt Ltd, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Tata Sons, had emerged as the highest bidder for Air India with a winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore as enterprise value (EV), marking the end of a long and protracted divestment saga.

The announcement means that Air India will go back to the Tatas after more than six decades. The Tatas had launched the airline way back in 1932 as Tata Airlines and operated it for two decades before it was nationalised in 1953.

The Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), empowered by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, approved the highest price bid of Talace, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons for sale of 100% equity shareholding of Government of India in Air India along with equity shareholding of Air India in AIXL and AISATS.

"The winning bid is for Rs 18,000 crore as Enterprise Value (EV) consideration for AI (100% shares of AI along with AI’s shareholding in AIXL and AISATS). The transaction does not include non-core assets including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, which are to be transferred to GoI’s Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL)," an official press release had said at that time.

Out of the 18,000 crore, Talace will retain Rs 15,300 crore as debt, while the rest will be paid to the Centre as the cash component.

NNN