Former chief commercial officer of Scoot airline, Vinod Kannan, will join domestic full-service carrier Vistara next month as head of the strategy, sources in the know told CNBC-TV18.

"As Vistara accelerates its growth and prepares to take the next leap in its journey of becoming a global brand, certain changes have been introduced in the leadership structure. Strategy and commercial are cornerstones of any airline’s business, and these two areas will be bolstered to ensure focus on key priorities. Sanjiv Kapoor will remain Vistara’s chief commercial officer while Vinod Kannan from within the SIA group will be joining Vistara next month as chief strategy officer," Vistara spokesperson said.

Tata SIA Airlines operating as Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. Scoot is a low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

As per his LinkedIn profile, Kannan has been working for Singapore Airlines since 2001 across different portfolios.

Currently, Sanjiv Kapoor is the chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara.

With this development, the strategy part consisting of network planning, alliances, and airline partnerships, will move to Kannan, while distribution, pricing, and revenue management, sales, marketing, customer experience, inflight services, catering, frequent flyer programme, call centre, cargo will stay with Kapoor, sources privy to the developments told CNBC-TV18.

Further, in a communication sent to employees, Kapoor denied rumours of his exit.

"I want to assure you that there is no truth to those rumours. I am very much remaining with Vistara, and will continue to have pricing and revenue management, distribution, sales, marketing (mainline and digital), loyalty (frequent flyer program), ancillaries, cabin services (including cabin crew and catering), customer engagement and CSC, and cargo report up to me as the CCO. As Leslie explained in his email, as we accelerate our growth this year we need to divide and conquer and ensure we are continuing to bring in talent to help manage the growth. We cannot afford to overload any individual and create bottlenecks. We need to re-balance to ensure the organization remains nimble and agile," Kapoor's communication to employees read.

"Network planning and airline partnerships will report to Vinod, and commercial (DRM and sales) will work closely with them and provide all necessary inputs to make the best decisions. We have come a long way in terms of network and airline partnerships in the last couple of years, and I look forward to working with Vinod when he joins," Kapoor's email to employees further read.

"To prepare for the next phase of growth, strategy and commercial position is being split," said people familiar with the matter. Vistara, which recently received permission to fly international, is currently making preparations to start its overseas journey.

First Published:May 21, 2019 3:20 PM IST