The latest to exit Kingfisher Airlines: its marketing VP
The latest to exit Kingfisher Airlines: its marketing VP
Mumbai: Vikram Malhotra, vice-president of marketing at Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, has quit the firm, according to two executives at the domestic carrier.
The exit of Malhotra, who was closely associated with the airline’s promoter and UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya, comes shortly after executive vice-president Ramki Sundaram left in mid-June.
The second executive said Malhotra was not joining a competing airline, but a different group with a leadership assignment. Both official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Malhotra did not respond to several calls and text messages.
Prakash Mirpuri, the airline’s vice-president for corporate communications, denied the development.
Malhotra, 34, was one of the key executives in Kingfisher Airlines and has been working with the UB Group for the past seven years.
He is the latest in a string of high-profile exits that have marked the domestic civil aviation industry. The sector has been stressed on the back of an economic slowdown, posting around $2 billion (Rs9,760 crore) in losses in the year ended 31 March.
Sundaram, the former chief executive officer of Air Deccan that merged with Kingfisher Airlines in 2007, quit to return to London-based Investec Bank (UK) Ltd as global head for mergers and acquisitions and as an adviser to its aviation business.
D.D. Gandhi, Kingfisher Airlines’ vice-president of operations and one of the carrier’s earliest employees, left earlier in June. Gandhi had joined Kingfisher in 2005 after a year with Deccan Aviation Ltd to head the airline’s domestic and international expansion.
After Nigel Harwood quit as chief operating officer three years ago, Kingfisher Airlines has been looking unsuccessfully for a chief executive officer and a chief operating officer.
The key functions of the firm are currently being overseen by three executive vice-presidents, Hitesh Patel, A. Raghunathan and Rajesh Verma, all of whom are reporting to Mallya.
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