Gaurang Shetty is Air Sahara COO

Goyal, Dutta, Vic on Sahara board

BY A CORRESPONDENT
March 29, 2006

Despite the uncertainty surrounding its Sahara deal, Jet Airways has gone ahead and placed its nominees on the Air Sahara board, in clear move to ring in the new and ring out of the old. Gaurang Shetty, currently marketing vice-president of Jet Airways, will be the new chief operating officer of Air Sahara. Contrary to earlier indications, Jet Airways is now retaining Air Sahara as a subsidiary for the time being. According to the Jet-Sahara takeover deal, the Air Sahara top management will continue for the next six months with the airline to facilitate easier management takeover.

With the arrival of the new top brass, Rono Dutta who headed Air Sahara till now, along with Alok Sharma have made way for the new captains.

Jet Airways has already rejigged the Air Sahara board, placing Naresh Goyal, Vic Dungca and Saroj Dutta on the Sahara fight deck. With the new top team in place, Air Sahara's financiers, suppliers and agents will now deal with the Jet honchos who head key departments at Air Sahara.The changes are expected to come into effect from April 1. The process of integration of Air Sahara and Jet Airways is already on, with a joint team looking into the nitty-gritty of the deal.

However, Air Sahara's flying and parking rights are still under the consideration of the director general of civil aviation (DGCA). The country's competition body Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Prevention Commission (MRTPC) is also looking into the Jet-Sahara deal to see if there is any chance of an monopoly emerging which may even inadvertently trigger anti-competitive behaviour. In this background, Jet Airways handed over Rs 500 crore to Air Sahara on March 24, as an advance sum, and extended the last date for signing the share purchase agreement (SPA) by another three months. If the deal comes unstuck for any reason, Air Sahara will return the money to Jet Airways without interest.