Jet Airways adds to leadership team in run-up to revival

Days after it received the regulator’s nod to resume operations, Jet Airways has announced names of new appointments to its leadership team. The airline has already announced vacancies for various operational roles as it moves ahead to restart flights later this year.

Jet Airways, which is now owned by the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, has appointed Mark Turner as the vice president of inflight product and services, Prabh Sharan Singh as chief digital officer, HR Jagannath as vice president of engineering, and Vishesh Khanna as vice president of sales, distribution, and customer engagement.

"We are delighted to welcome these extremely talented and experienced leaders to the Jet Airways family. All of us in the senior management team of Jet Airways share many things in common, the most important of which is our joint sense of purpose and passion of rebuilding Jet as India’s most people-focused and loved airline, updated for the digital age. This stellar team is deeply committed to bringing the ‘joy of flying’ back to the skies, and I am looking forward to working with them to create history," says Jet CEO Sanjiv Kapoor.

Turner’s appointment marks his return to Jet Airways after 10 years; he had served as the senior vice president of cabin crew at the airline from 2008 to 2011. The aviation veteran has 40 years of experience under his belt, working in key senior management positions at Gulf Air, Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Fiji Airways. Re-joining Jet on June 15, he will oversee cabin crew operations, training, and service development, inflight product development, and catering. He will take charge on June 15.

Singh will join Jet Airways on June 1 and lead the IT and digital division at the airline. He is currently working as senior vice president at WNS Global Services. In his 20 years of experience, Singh has worked with Etihad Airways and Kingfisher Airlines in key digital transformation roles.

Jagannath has joined Jet Airways on May 23 with over 40 years of experience, the lion’s share of which he has spent as the chief executive officer of Air India Engineering Services. He played a crucial role in setting up of Air India’s MRO facilities in India and led the delivery of two specially configured Boeing 777 aircraft to the Indian Air Force for VVIP operations.

Khanna will join Jet in July this year. Currently he is the business head for e-Visa at VFS Global Ltd. In the 30 years of his career, Khanna has worked at Vistara as vice president of sales for India and overseas markets, Kingfisher Airlines as VP of corporate sales, and IndiGo as VP of corporate sales in India.

Earlier this year, Jet Airways had appointed Sanjiv Kapoor as chief executive officer (CEO). The airline has also roped in Vipula Gunatilleka as chief finance officer (CFO), Captain P.P. Singh as vice president of flight operations and accountable manager, Alphonso Dass as vice president of airports and airport training, Nakul Tuteja as vice president of human resources and administration, and Ronit Baugh as general manager and head of public relations and corporate communications.

Jet has also invited job applications for various roles, including senior manager-finance, manager-cargo operations, assistant manager-cargo pricing, and deputy general manager-tech procurement. The carrier has also opened recruitment for the positions including deputy general manager and senior for schedule planning and systems and executive and senior executive of network planning.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued the air operator certificate (AOC) to Jet Airways on May 20 after the airline completed two sets of proving flights required for the clearance. The certificate allows an airline to operate its flights for commercial purposes. The approval is granted after the airline has in place its personnel, aircraft, assets and systems to ensure the safety of its passengers and employees.

The airline had conducted the first set of proving flights earlier this month with 18 people on board on the Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Delhi routes using a Boeing 737 aircraft. The second set of flights was conducted a few days later using the same plane on the Delhi-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Delhi routes, with 31 people on board, including DGCA officials.

Jet Airways was grounded on April 17, 2019, after it failed to pay vendors due to bankruptcy under founder Naresh Goyal. The Jalan-Kalrock consortium had taken over the airline in October 2020 after placing the successful bid during the corporate insolvency resolution process from June 20, 2019, until June 22, 2021. Murari Lal Jalan is a Dubai-based NRI businessman and Kalrock Capital is a financial advisory and asset management company.

Since the airports had allocated the earlier slots of Jet Airways to other operators, the airline is still in discussions with the authorities to secure slots for its flights. The airline wants to have a pan-India route network, initially with less frequency. The new management targets to start the operations by September this year.