IndiGo names former InterGlobe CEO and U.S. FAA administrator Mike Whitaker as an independent director

India’s largest airline IndiGo has named Mike Whitaker, the former administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and CEO of InterGlobe , as an independent director to its board for a five-year term, it said in an exchange filing. Whitaker’s appointment is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and will be effective from the day his appointment receives security clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Concurrently, it said that the term of Dr. V. Sumantran, an independent director and chairman of the company, has come to an end, and communicated to the board that he did not seek re-election for a second term.

“India is one of the world’s great travel hubs with unlimited growth potential. I look forward to working with the Board to continue the growth of this world-leading Indian company,” Whitaker said in a statement.

Whitaker was appointed as the administrator of the U.S. FAA in October 2023 for a five-year term, but in January this year, stepped down from his position prematurely after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term in office. Whitaker’s brief tenure at the helm of the FAA was eventful, largely subsumed with safety concerns surrounding Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX aircrafts when a panel tore off from the side of an airborne 737 MAX 9, which was just over 16,000 feet.

The incident prompted Whitaker to take the unprecedented step of capping the production of 737 MAX aircrafts to 38 per month in January, until Boeing significantly improved the safety of its aircrafts. In October last year, Whitaker ordered a second audit of Boeing. He has also publicly said that it would take Boeing five years to improve its safety culture.

It was also in his tenure that the FAA sparred with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, when in September last year the agency sought to levy a fine of $633,000 (approximately ₹54 lakh) for not complying with licensing requirements and making unapproved changes during two of its launches in 2023.

Musk—who is a well-known, long-standing critique of what he perceives as untenably labyrinthine regulations—retorted with calls for Whitaker’s resignation and said that SpaceX will be filing a lawsuit against the FAA for a “regulatory overreach”.

Whitaker—a global executive with deep roots in aviation and strategy with a three-decade-long career—was the group CEO of InterGlobe between September 2009 and October 2012.