Praveen Iyer, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Akasa Air, has quit the airline, in the second high-profile exit in less than three years of operations. He was also a member of the executive committee of the company.
Chief Information Officer Anand Srinivasan has taken additional charge as the new commercial head. Co-founder Neelu Khatri, who headed international operations, had exited the airline last year.
The development comes a day after an Akasa Air spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that GST officers had visited the offices of the airline as part of a “business verification process”.
Backed by the family of the late billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Akasa Air was started by a clutch of aviation industry leaders including former Go First and Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and former IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh.
The founding team also included:
- Praveen Iyer: The chief commercial officer who was formerly with Jet Airways and Qatar Airways.
- Anand Srinivasan: The chief information officer, who was formerly with Go First.
- Belson Coutinho: The chief marketing officer, who was formerly a senior executive at Jet Airways.
- Bhavin Joshi: The Senior VP – Strategy, who was formerly with PwC and Jet Airways.
- Neelu Khatri: A former executive who headed international operations and corporate affairs.
Other founding team members were Sanjay Dube and Niraj Dube, who were part of initial conceptualisation stage only.
The airline currently enjoys a market share of 5% in India’s aviation industry.
