Blow to AirAsia India, COO Sanjay Kumar quits

NEW DELHI: In a blow to AirAsia India, Sanjay Kumar — its chief operating officer (COO) — for just about a year has resigned from the position. Kumar is among the most experienced aviation professionals in India who had joined the Tata-AirAsia JV on December 3, 2018, after heading network and commercial at IndiGo for 12 years.

It is not confirm as of now AirAsia India’s Pvt Ltd (AAIPL) loss will be which airline’s gain with Kumar joining it.

Low cost AAIPL has been mired in multiple court cases over grant of its license in India and has still not got permission to fly abroad dispute completing five years in operation and shaving over 20 planes in its fleet. On the other hand, the second Tata JV airline with Singapore Airlines (SIA), Vistara, was the first airline to get the nod to fly overseas after this 5/20 rule was scrapped. AAIPL has seen significant management churn at top in past few years.

“While the professional culture at Tata Group and SIA is in sync, Tata Group and AirAsia are quite different,” say sources.

Kumar has over 25 years experience in Indian aviation industry across functions like business planning, strategy, network development, distribution and sales in IndiGo, Air Sahara, Royal Airlines and SpiceJet. He has a master’s degree in Economics from Meerut University and an MBA.