At least nine candidates have been short-listed for the post of CEO to replace Jude E. Fonseka who was let go as part of a cost-cutting effort at the company. “We are looking for somebody with Indian experience,†Gopinath told Mint. The new CEO will take the freight services firm’s business plan forward, said the aviation pioneer.
“I wanted somebody who is going to stay for the long term and grow the business and create wealth. We are going to strengthen it and deepen it,†he added.
Gopinath is seeking to expand Deccan 360 operations to tap an air cargo business in which growth is expected to accelerate to an annual pace of 11.8 per cent by 2011-12, from 5 per cent in 2008-09, according to figures released by civil aviation minister Praful Patel earlier this month.
Without giving details of the shareholding structure, Gopinath said Reliance had bought anywhere between 26- 49 per cent of Deccan 360, which started commercial operations a year ago with a service from Delhi to Hong Kong.
RIL and Deccan 360 teams are now meeting to identify “overlapping†synergies in areas such as information technology and logistics infrastructure, he said. A final business plan for the freight services firm will be in place in two months, said Gopinath.
Deccan 360 works on a hub-andspoke model, using Nagpur as the hub. It has appointed national service providers on a franchisee model and has already set up 80 service centres and eight surface hubs to service operations using its eight freighter aircraft, including Airbus A310s and ATRs, supported by a fleet of 300 trucks and 850 vehicles nationwide. India has just 20 freighter aircraft currently, a fleet size that Airbus says will expand to 210 by 2028, comprising 39 new freighters and 171 converted passenger planes.