{"id":27208,"date":"2021-01-05T18:56:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T23:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianeagle.com\/travelbeats\/?p=27208"},"modified":"2021-01-05T19:47:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T00:47:29","slug":"meenakshi-mallik-air-india-bidding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indianeagle.com\/travelbeats\/meenakshi-mallik-air-india-bidding\/","title":{"rendered":"Meenakshi Mallik who Joined Air India as a Management Trainee in 1989 Offers to Acquire the Airline"},"content":{"rendered":"
The name and face that remained invisible in the shadow of Air India\u2019s monumental initiatives, such as Vande Bharat Mission for the repatriation of Indians stranded abroad and all-women-crew flight operations<\/a><\/span> on International Women\u2019s Day, has emerged in the public spotlight during the ongoing bidding race for Air India sale. The name and face behind a consortium of 219 Air India employees\u2019 bid to acquire a 51% stake of the debt-ridden airline is the talk of the town these days. It is Meenakshi Mallik who has seen Air India through highs and lows during her career spanning 31 years in aviation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Meenakshi Mallik, 54, who took charge as commercial director of Air India Limited in June 2020, came forward to dare pilot the airline to a new high despite staunch opposition from the airline\u2019s pilot unions.<\/strong> After JRD Tata, the founder, and maker of Air India, she is the only one within the company to exude bullish confidence in taking over the reins of a loss-making airline. Meenakshi Mallik who served Air India as executive director \u2013 commercial until May 2020 is one of the few who know the airline inside out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the airline inside out; we know where the problems are. We\u2019re not bidding to win or lose; we\u2019re doing it because we believe we can run the airline well,\u201d she said exuberantly on December 14, the last date for the bidders including Laxmi Prasad, a US-based NRI<\/a><\/span>, to file an expression of interest for Air India\u2019s disinvestment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On completion of her MBA studies, she joined Air India as a management trainee in 1989. She never looked back since then.<\/strong> Rather, she moved up the corporate ladder and joined the board of Air India as a commercial director on the strength of her vision for the airline and her leadership behind the airline\u2019s international expansion. She did not hesitate to take charge as head of the commercial department especially when the pandemic was at its peak and the airline\u2019s revenues took a dip.<\/p>\n
Most of the nonstop routes<\/a><\/span>, like Delhi-Seoul, Delhi-Tel Aviv, and Amritsar-Stansted generated revenues for Air India Limited under her supervision as executive director \u2013 commercial.<\/strong> \u201cWe re-aligned some flights like Delhi-Seoul, which we were earlier connecting via Hong Kong. It is now a direct flight, which operates four days a week and is doing very well not just in terms of passenger numbers, but also in terms of cargo carried,\u201d she told TravTalk, a leading travel trade magazine in South Asia.<\/p>\n