India has lost a dynamic and professional CEO in the airline industry. Sanjay Aggarwal has quit SpiceJet.
Sanjay Aggarwal tendered his resignation after a board meeting on June 30, as per The Mint newspaper.
Kishore Gupta, a representative of the Kansagara family on the airline board is likely to be the acting CEO till a permanent replacement is named.
This is the second exit of a senior SpiceJet officer since the take-over of the airline by media baron Kalanithi Maran. On June 1, SpiceJet’s senior vice-president (Marketing) Anish Srikrishna had quit.
Despite initial suspicions, inside information points to a conflict between the professionalism Aggarwal brought to the airline vs. the earlier “family run” style of some of the existing directors and stake-holders as the reason for Aggarwal’s exit.
I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with Sanjay on many an occasion, his pragmatism, lateral out-of-the-box thinking, and professionalism is without parallel. Without a doubt his exit is a serious loss not only to SpiceJet by the Indian airline industry.
For planespotters, SpiceJet recently took delivery of its 21st aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 registration VT-SGG. You can see a picture here.
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