Cathay Pacific elevates Abhijit Abhyankar as head-HR

Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airline, has elevated Abhijit Abhyankar as the its new regional head of people. He will manage South Asia, Middle East and Africa (SAMEA) and will be stationed at Mumbai. As head of people, he will be responsible for human resource strategy and execution, internal stakeholder management and collaboration, talent management and succession planning, employee engagement, people cost budgeting and business continuity.

Prior to this role, Abhyankar was the country manager for Africa and Indian Ocean region at Cathay Pacific and was responsible for the growth of the airline’s business and operations in the region.

Having joined Cathay Pacific in 2009, as the corporate sales manager for India, Nepal and Bangladesh, Abhyankar has seen multiple promotions in over 11-year long tenure with the company. In October 2014 he was appointed regional marketing communications manager for South Asia. Thereafter, in October 2018, he went on to head marketing and direct channel sales, in the capacity of regional head of marketing and digital sales for South Asia, Middle East and Africa (SAMEA), based out of Mumbai, India. He led the marketing strategy, direct channel sales and customer contact support.

Before joining Cathay Pacific, Abhyankar was a key account manager at Jet Airways. He comes from a sales, client servicing and marketing background, working in the aviation and hospitality industry.

On his appointment, Abhyankar says, “It has been a real honour for me to be appointed to this position. At Cathay Pacific, we believe our employees are the key drivers of our business. We aim to provide our people with an environment in which they are able to flourish with us. Our culture, work environment, as well as the dedicated specialised programmes — such as Cathay Women’s Network and Fly With Pride Network — encourage our employees to take pride in being a part of Cathay Pacific, further driving them to deliver their best for our business.”

Born in Mumbai, Abhyankar has over 21 years of experience in the hospitality and aviation sector. He also carries a master’s of management studies degree in marketing and public relations.