New Delhi
Retired technocrat Ashwani Lohani took charge as the chairman and managing director of Air India on Friday.He took the charge in presence of recently appointed Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola and senior officials of the national carrier.This is Lohani’s second tenure as Air India chief.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on February 13 cleared Lohani’s re-induction on a contract basis for a one-year tenure.Lohani is a 1980-batch IRSME officer hailing from Madhya Pradesh.

He had headed the national carrier from August 2017 to September 2017 before being moved to the Railway Board as the chairman, from where he retired in December 2018.

It was during his tenure that Air India made its first operating profit of Rs 105 crore in the 2017 financial year, since the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India in 2007.