Poised for Take Off

Harpreet A De Singh, the first woman pilot hired by Air India, is entrusted with the responsibility of turning around the fortunes of its subsidiary Alliance Air as its first woman CEO

- Manu Balachandran

For much of her life, Harpreet A De Singh has been busy shattering glass ceilings. In 1988, as a 21-year-old, she was the first female pilot to be selected by India’s flagship carrier Air India to fly its aircraft, at a time when the government-owned airline ruled the Indian skies. In the mid-1990s, she became the first female instructor for Air India’s pilots before going on to become the country’s first female chief of flight safety, in 2015.

Even then, by her own admission, she had not seen this one coming. In fact, she had neither applied nor was she called for an interview. Yet, it was perhaps her penchant to break barriers and her long-drawn credentials at Air India that propelled her to become India’s first female CEO of an airline late last year.

“They must have seen something,” Singh says. “When you’re going up, people are watching you. They know how you’re performing and how you are working. Somewhere down the line, they may have trusted my ability.”

On November 3, Singh took charge as the CEO of Alliance Air, the New Delhi-headquartered subsidiary of beleaguered national airline, Air India. “I was pleasantly surprised that they thought of me for this role,” the 54-year-old tells Forbes India over a video call. “I knew that I was up to take up the challenge because I have had one advantage, having worked 360 degrees in an airline in the past.”