Nair was commissioned into the transport stream of the Indian Air Force in June 1980. He has clocked over 7200 hours of flying and has experience on many different types of aircraft's including Otter, Avro, An-32, Dornier and IL-76. He held several key operational and administrative appointments at various stages of his service including Chief Operations Officer of a Transport Base; Commanding Officer of a strategic Air lift Squadron; Director Operations (Transport) at Air Headquarters; Air Officer Commanding of AFS Chandigarh; Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Personnel Airmen and Civilians); Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Transport &amp; Helicopter) and Senior Air Staff Officer of Training Command. He has also been extensively involved in many military operations including Operation Pawan, Operation Cactus, Operations Parakram and Operation Safed Sagar. As the Flight Commander, he was directly involved in initiating night operations to Leh and Thoise on the IL-76 aircraft. He has led multiple airborne exercises with foreign countries including Exercise Blue Crane in South Africa in 1999, Exercise Cooperative Cope Thunder in USA in 2003 and Russia in Exercise INDRA 2007. He captained a flight to the North Pole in an Indian Air Force (IAF) IL-76 aircraft on 20 Jun 2003, making it the first Indian aircraft to fly over the true North pole. He played a pivotal role in operationalising Daulet Beg Oldi, the highest air strip in the world , for An-32 and C-130 aircraft. He was involved in numerous disaster relief operations during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, Super cyclone in Orissa, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Mumbai Floods, Cyclone Katrina, China Earthquake and was the Air Force co-ordinator for Operation Rahat. He is a qualified Flying Instructor, has been an Air Force Examiner and is the Commodore Commandant of 44 Squadron (Mighty Jets).