The Maharaja and his new vizier 
The Maharaja has a new diwan. Ilker Ayci, the former chairman of Turkish Airlines has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Air India starting from April 2022. Tata Sons, which owns Air India now, made the announcement on Monday (February 14).
Who is İlker Aycı?
The 51-year-old Turkish businessman was born and raised in Istanbul. A 1994 batch Political Science and Public Administration graduate of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, Aycı was a political researcher at the University of Leeds and obtained his masters’ degree in International Relations from Istanbul’s Marmara University in 1997.
He started his career in 1994 and was assigned various positions in Kurtsan Ilaclar A.S., Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Universal Dis Ticaret A.S. respectively. He was appointed Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisor in 1994 after the local elections in Turkey when Erdoğan became the Mayor of Istanbul. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is now the President of Turkey. As the advisor to Erdoğan, Aycı held several positions in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Such is said to be the camaraderie between Erdoğan and Aycı that when the latter married lawyer and sports commentator Tugçe Saatman on November 19, 2018, the President not only attended the wedding, but himself acted as one of the wedding witnesses.
Between 2005 and 2011, İlker Aycı worked with Turkish insurance giants. He joined Basak Sigorta A.S. in 2005 as a general manager and then worked with Gunes Sigorta A.S. from 2006 to 2011.
In 2011, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Republic of Turkey Investment Support and Promotion Agency — the official organisation in charge of promoting Turkey’s investment opportunities to the international business community. Aycı was subsequently elected vice president of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies in 2013, and then its chairman in January 2014.
Piloting Turkish Airlines operations
Aycı took charge as the chairman of Turkish Airlines in 2015 — a post he held until January 26, 2022. The announcement was made on January 27, incidentally the same day that the Centre handed over Air India to the Tatas. According to the Turkish newspaper Habertürk, Aycı was evacuated from Kazakhstan along with Turkish Airlines employees after protests erupted in the country over the increase in gas prices on January 2 this year. Aycı reportedly went to Kazakhstan to closely manage the evacuations.
The Habertürk report also mentions that Aycı was criticised for returning to Turkey with his wife on a cargo plane while leaving his teammates behind. Justifying his position, Aycı said that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu insisted on getting Aycı home first as the Turkish Airlines’ presence was attracting media attention and hampering the rescue operations. A day after Aycı’s resignation, Ahmet Bolat was appointed the new chairperson of Turkish Airlines. And barely three weeks after his departure from Turkish Airlines, Aycı was appointed by Tata Group to helm the operations of Air India.
Welcoming him to the Tata family, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said, “Ilker is an aviation industry leader who led Turkish Airlines to its current success during his tenure there. We are delighted to welcome Ilker to the Tata Group where he would lead Air India into the new era.”