Hijacked! Kingfisher poaches Jet stars

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=f1902c0d-7953-45f7-ab3b-856088e2172c
Lalatendu Mishra
Email Author
Mumbai, April 04, 2007
There is a new war for talent brewing in the aviation industry with seasoned market player Jet Airways witnessing an exodus of its senior executives. And the buzz is that these executives are being poached by rival Kingfisher Airlines.
At least five top-level officials of Jet Airways put in their papers on Wednesday and a few more are likely to resign, according to industry sources who did not wish to be named. Out of the five, three are joining Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines.
The three who have resigned include V Raja, General Manager (operations), South East Asia, and Nandini Verma, vice-president corporate communications. These executives are joining Kingfisher shortly.
Jet Airways executive director S K Dutta could not confirm all the resignations but said a few people had decided to leave. “Nobody is indispensable in an organisation and we will move on,” Dutta told Hindustan Times.
“Some people may quit if they get better offers and this is a part of the industry,” a senior Jet official said.
Nandini Verma has been associated with the airline from its inception and was one of the core team members of Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways’ chairman. She used to handle media relations for Jet Airways for more than a decade. She along with Raja are expected to help Mallya to expand Kingfisher’s base. According to unconfirmed reports, the head of training, Michel Chang and senior general manager Vijay Sethi have also resigned. But Jet officials could not confirm this.
The aviation industry has seen a number of executive movements in the recent past due to a boom in the low-cost carriers. For instance, Go Air recently hired the former chief operating officer of SpiceJet.
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