GoAir replaces CEO as troubles mount

Vinay Dube has been replaced by Kaushik Khona as GoAir’s new CEO. Six months after he joined GoAir from the now-defunct Jet Airways, Dube has quit the Wadia group owned carrier, which seems to be struggling the most among all airlines in the fray.

“Vinay Dube has ceased to be in employment with immediate effect and hence, ceases to be the CEO of the company,” a statement from GoAir said. “The nominations and remuneration committee and the board met today and appointed Kaushik Khona as CEO with immediate effect.”

Khona had earlier served as the CEO of the airline between 2009 and 2011. The airline was recently put on cash-and-carry by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) due to the mounting dues.

GoAir’s overall debt was up by 6% sequentially to Rs 1,891 crore in the June-ended quarter, while bank balance nearly halved to Rs 72.5 crore during the same period, according to rating agency India Ratings.

Khona’s appointment as CEO is the fourth such appointment at GoAir in the past four years. In 2018, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, then CEO of GoAir, had left the airline to join IndiGo, India’s largest airline company. The company then appointed Cornelis Vrieswijk, who quit within nine months. That was followed by the appointment of Dube, who had earlier led Jet Airways.

“In his professional corporate experience spanning 32 years, he (Khona) was always part of the management think tank. For more than 12 years he has been known as a turnaround man and has managed and headed various businesses successfully as a CXO,” GoAir said in a statement.