New Delhi, May 29: The government today appointed V. Thulasidas as chairman and managing director and Vishwapati Trivedi as joint managing director of Air India — formed after merging Indian and Air-India.

The appointments would take effect from the date the merged carrier starts functioning. Till then, Thulasidas and Trivedi will continue as chiefs of AI and Indian, respectively.

In the merged company, Thulasidas will supervise the merger and international operations, while Trivedi will look after domestic business.

Both officials will serve the merged carrier till March 31 next year or till further orders, the official statement said.

Earlier this month, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said the new carrier would start functioning as a single entity by the middle of July.

Thulasidas belongs to the 1972 batch of the Indian administrative service (IAS) with Manipur and Tripura as his cadre, while Trivedi belongs to the 1977 IAS batch from the Madhya Pradesh cadre.

The cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had approved the merger of the two carriers on March 1 to help them leverage their combined assets and capital better and build a stronger and sustainable business.

A section of the government preferred a single post of CMD for the merged entity. However, the department of personnel felt the post could be bifurcated. The government seems to have taken the middle path.

The government has also approved that the pay and perquisites of Thulasidas and Trivedi will be protected.

Indian and Air-India have suffered operational losses of Rs 500 crore and Rs 300 crore, respectively, in 2006-07.