Mark Sutch flies back to India as new CCO at Indigo's CarGo

Mark Sutch, the veteran Cathay Cargo executive who had a short-lived stint at CMA CGM Air Cargo, has ended up back in India, where he spent his latter Cathay years.

He has taken on the role of chief commercial officer, international, at low-cost carrier Indigo’s cargo arm, CarGo.

Indigo appears to be making a habit of attracting international talent. It is headed by Pieter Elbers, former president and CEO of KLM. It has also invested in freighters, with its first A321F delivered in November and another the following month. Its first international cargo flight was between Kolkata and Yangon.

Mr Sutch spent five years as Cathay’s regional general manager for South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, based in Mumbai. Prior to that, he was GM cargo sales and marketing in Hong Kong. He left the carrier in 2022 and took a job as CCO of CMA CGM’s airline – but left after just five months when the shipping line decided to outsource some of its functions to AF-KLM.

“This a very exciting opportunity to grow the share of Indian carriers in the import and export of air cargo in the country,” said Mr Sutch. “Indigo is one of the largest airlines in the world by fleet and movements, and has a growing international network.”

India finally seems to be taking its aviation and cargo sector seriously. Not only is Air India, under Tata Group ownership, experiencing something of a rebirth, with an order for 470 aircraft, but Jet Airways is also rising again and could order 100 aircraft. In addition, there are new freighter operators, such as Pradhaan Air Express, while Amazon Air has also entered the market.