Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Oct 27: Along with a number of other high-level appointments, Air India announced on Friday that Klaus Goersch has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer (COO).
Goersch will supervise flight operations, engineering, ground operations, Integrated Operations Control, and cabin crew duties in his newly established role at the airline.
Air India stated that R S Sandhu, the current chief of operations, would take on an advisory position.
According to a release from Air India, Goersch’s responsibilities include assisting the team in establishing the airline’s new training academy, aiding with the Airbus A350 entry-into-service program, and focusing on harmonizing the operating procedures of the four Tata carriers.
He was a licensed pilot with experience in B777/787 aircraft, having held comparable roles with British Airways and Air Canada.
Another announcement from Air India is the appointment of Manish Uppal as Senior Vice President for Flight Operations. Uppal left AirAsia India a few months ago.
Additionally, emergency response will now be a part of Henry Donohoe’s corporate safety, security, and quality responsibilities. Senior Vice President for Safety, Security, and Quality will be the new title assigned to him.
The release indicates that the responsibility for overseeing the inflight product and service design functions, currently led by Sandeep Verma, will be transferred to Rajesh Dogra’s Customer Experience portfolio. This change is aimed at ensuring that Rajesh Dogra has comprehensive supervision over all customer interactions.
Ground operations will be headed by Pankaj Handa, Divisional Vice President for cabin crew will be JuLi Ng, and Divisional Vice President for Integrated Operations Control Center will be Choorah Singh.
Goersch, Dogra, and Donohoe will report directly to Air India’s Managing Director and CEO, Campbell Wilson. Meanwhile, the current members of the management committee, including Nipun Aggarwal, Satya Ramaswamy, Suresh Dutt Tripathi, and Vinod Hejmadi, whose positions remain unchanged, will also report to Wilson.
Handa, Singh, and Ng will have Goersch as their reporting authority, and the same applies to Uppal and Sisira Kanta Dash, who holds the position of senior vice president of engineering.
“These changes have been made with a view to managing succession, streamlining the organisation, optimising talent from within the Tata airline group and positioning it strongly for future growth and success,” Wilson said.
