Mumbai: Employees of the beleaguered state-run carrier Air India are upbeat about a new management taking over the reins and hope a sincere effort will be made to lift the cash-strapped and mismanaged company out of its abyss.
The government has yet to confirm the appointment of Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi as chairman and Joint Secretary Rohit Nandan as managing director of Air India to replace the present chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav who has been removed.
But the reports of the two men taking interim charge has already sent positive waves among employees who are pleased that finally people with a background in civil aviation will handle India's oldest airline.
"The [ousting] of Jadhav is a dream come true since he did nothing to revive the airline and instead destroyed it," Rishab Kapoor, general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, told Gulf News.
Air India's pilots who brought its operations to a standstill as well as the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) that led a strike against Air India this summer are glad that the dark days are over.
Mismanagement
"We shall extend all our support to the new management, though we think the entire management should have been sacked and a new one brought in," says Kapoor.
He added that their strike highlighted the mismanagement that had gripped the airline.
Their salaries are still being paid two months behind schedule, he said, "but we have come to terms with it. We have no demands to make except we want the airline to be revamped."
