The 32-year old Malysian entrepreneur of Indian origin, an alumnus of Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh, will take over as CEO of AirAsia’s India operations from the 1st of June. The good-looking Chandilya takes up modeling gigs in his spare time and quits as head of services practice for Asia-Pacific at executive search firm Egon Zehnder.
Born in Chennai, he grew up in India, Africa and the US, has a Bachelor’s in business and economics with a triple major from the Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, US, apart from MBAs from Insead, France/Singapore and from Tsinghua University, Beijing.
On his appointment, Chandilya said: “I am a native of Chennai, and I am excited about returning to India to revolutionise the air travel industry here. I am looking forward to being part of the dynamic AirAsia family, and most importantly, to bring a whole new meaning to the word ‘flying’ to consumers in India.”
AirAsia enters India along with Tata Sons and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace, in a 49:30:21 joint venture to launch the airline in the country, which will be headquartered in Chennai. Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata said: “I am extremely pleased that the board of directors of AirAsia India has appointed Mittu Chandilya as the CEO of the company. I am confident that Mittu will provide the leadership and bring to bear his entrepreneurial skills in successfully growing this new airline in the Indian aviation space.”
The choice of CEO will be sent to the Union home ministry for security clearance based on the dossier collected by central intelligence agencies. This is mandatory before the civil aviation ministry and Director General of Civil Aviation formally grant licence to fly.
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