Data stolen by former MD? GoAir goes after IndiGo's prize catch

When no-frills airline IndiGo’s recently appointed chief operating officer, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, left his previous employer, GoAir—after months of constant disagreements with the airline’s promoters at the Wadia Group—he may have thought he was closing a chapter in his career. But Prock-Schauer hasn't finished his business with GoAir yet. The airline sued its former managing director in the Bombay High Court for alleged theft of confidential information within a week of him joining rival IndiGo, Mint reported citing court documents. A GoAir lawyer submitted sealed documents he said belonged to his firm and were stolen by Prock-Schauer, according to the Mint report. Citing an order, the report said Prock-Schauer’s lawyer said he would not “use and/or copy and/or publish and/or disclose any of the confidential information, trade secrets and/or know-how belonging to GoAir”. Subsequently, on 14 March, the court allowed Prock-Schauer’s lawyer to inspect the documents on condition that they be kept confidential, the report said. According to the report, at the last hearing on 27 April, senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas appearing for Prock-Schauer said, “During the last court hearing, we parted with the belief that the petitioners wanted to settle the case but now the company don’t want to settle. If the company had indicated this earlier, we would have gone ahead with the matter.” The court will hear the matter again on 15 June.Prock-Schauer had joined GoAir as CEO in June 2015 and was its managing director since April 2016. IndiGo is his third airline employer in India, after Jet Airways and GoAir — no other executive has worked in as many Indian carriers in top management positions. The Austrian has been the chief executive of British Midland International and Air Berlin (Germany/UK) in the past. Citing sources, ET had reported in February that starting April-May 2017, there were disagreements between chief executive Prock-Schauer and the Wadias over issues of yields and induction of foreign pilots as commanders for the airline’s new Airbus A320 planes. Wadias were unhappy about some new routes started by Prock-Schauer that were not making money, said some of the people ET had spoken to. The promoters were also not pleased with his decision to induct expatriate commanders, the people said, as that would inflate the salary bill for the airline. A foreign pilot gets up to twice the salary of his Indian peer.GoAir hired about 40 expatriate commanders last year. Some people also supported Prock-Schauer, saying GoAir’s revenue per available seat kilometre — a measure of operational efficiency — was best in industry during April-June. “On the issue of pilots, there is no doubt that expatriates come at higher salaries, not conducive for a low-fare carrier. But GoAir had promoted and upgraded as many first officers as it could and there was no more room. Also, it’s common knowledge that there is a dearth of commander pilots in India,” a pilot at the airline, supporting the decision to induct foreign pilots, told ET in February.In August 2017, several responsibilities such as revenue management and network planning, earlier under Prock-Schauer, were given to chief commercial officer Anand Sahai, who had joined a month back in July. Prock-Schauer resigned in September and had his last day at the airline in December. Sahai, a former Vodafone executive, was also asked by the promoters to quit, a person in the know had told ET. He put in his papers in December, the person said. The Wadias were also unhappy with the former CEO joining a rival airline immediately after leaving GoAir. The airline has always had a high churn rate at the top level in over a decade of its existence.An aviation industry veteran, Prock-Schauer has had an impeccable career. He oversaw its expansion from 20 planes to 100 during his first job with Austrian Airlines. During his six year-plus stint at Jet, he presided over its fleet expansion from 40 planes to more than a hundred, its first international flights to Colombo and later to London, its public listing and acquisition of Air Sahara. After leaving Jet in 2009, he headed restructuring programmes at British Midlands and Air Berlin. He also helmed two low-cost airlines — Bmibaby, a subsidiary of BMI (British Midlands) and Niki, a subsidiary of Air Berlin.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2I0YMT2