Delta Air Lines has promoted Rahul Samant, chief information officer, to executive vice president, effective January 1, 2018.

Samant will report directly to Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta.

“As we look to our future and transforming the customer experience, we know that technology is a critical enabler for us, second only to Delta people,” Bastian said. “Rahul has proven that he’s the right leader to guide us on our digital transformation making IT a competitive advantage for Delta.”

Samant joined Delta in February 2016 and has focused on strengthening the airline’s information technology infrastructure while driving programmes and innovative processes to make technology a competitive advantage.

Under his leadership, Delta has developed and implemented tools and technology to enhance the customer experience, built a new disaster recovery data centre, and started a multi-year effort to digitally transform the company.

Samant previously served as AIG’s chief digital officer and was responsible for internal- and external-facing web, mobile and social assets, and harmonizing efforts across contact centres, social media, the internet and the company’s intranet. Rahul also led AIG’s captive IT unit in Manila and managed the company’s use of vendor resources overseas, according to Delta.