Vistara CCO Sanjiv Kapoor Resigns, CSO Vinod Kannan To Take Over

Vistara's Chief Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor has resigned from the post and is set to leave the airline on Dec. 31, nearly four years of his boarding the joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines.

In a statement, Vistara said Kapoor has resigned due to personal reasons.

Chief Strategy Officer Vinod Kannan, who moved to Vistara from budget airline Scoot in June this year, will take over the position from Kapoor. Scoot is the group company of Singapore Airlines, which owns 49 percent in Vistara in addition to 51 percent stake of Tata Sons.

"Vistaras Chief Commercial Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor, resigned from his position due to personal reasons," an airline spokesperson said in a statement. He'll be leaving Vistara on Dec. 31 and Kannan, will take over his position subsequently, the statement said.

Kapoor joined Vistara as its chief strategy and the commercial officer in March 2016 after resigning from SpiceJet Ltd., following the change of ownership at the airline to Ajay Singh from Kalanithi Maran in January 2016.

At Vistara, he was responsible for managing a wide portfolio of airline's commercial and planning functions, including strategy development, network planning, pricing and revenue management, sales and distribution, product development, branding, marketing and customer experience.

However, in June when Kannan joined Vistara as its chief strategy officer, Kapoor's role was reduced to only handling the commercial aspects of the business.

"Gradually, most of the crucial departments—including network planning, revenue management, airports and alliances and cargo—were taken away from Kapoor, effectively leaving him with no work. This diminished role led to his departure from the airline," according to an industry source.

"As part of the transition process since Kapoor's resignation, some of the portfolios had been moved under Kannan's leadership, while some are still in the movement process," Vistara said in the statement.