Air India CEO Campbell Wilson to step down as Air India Express chairman, to be replaced by CCO Nipun Aggarwal | Business News
Air India’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson will step down as the chairman of the Tata group’s budget airline Air India Express, and will be replaced by Air India’s Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal in an effort to facilitate better synergy and coordination between the two airlines’ network and commercial efforts.
Air India Express is a fully-owned subsidiary of Air India, and was acquired from the government by the Tata group along with the parent airline in 2022. Wilson had assumed the role of Air India Express chairman when he took over as the CEO and MD of Air India in June 2022.
Aggarwal is seen as a key Tata group executive in the Air India group and played a key role in Tata Sons’ acquisition of Air India. Aggarwal has also been instrumental in the Air India group placing massive orders for scores of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, and has been playing an important role in shaping Air India’s commercial, operational, and network strategies.
In an internal note to staff, Wilson said that he will also be exiting the Air India Express board, where he will be replaced by Air India’s Chief Operations Officer Basil Kwauk, while Aggarwal is already on the board of the budget airline. Both Aggarwal and Kwauk will also continue in their respective roles at the parent airline Air India.
The Air India group has seen various structural changes over the past couple of years as part of its transformation journey with an aim to become a world-class airline group. These changes included merger of four Tata group airlines into two, consolidation of non-flying teams at the new group headquarters in Gurugram, and refreshing the leadership teams of Air India as well as Air India Express.
“We’ve also worked hard to improve the communication, collaboration and coordination between our Full Service and Low-Cost airlines across all functions, for the benefit of each airline and the Group overall. With this structural work largely complete, the task at hand now is to fully leverage and optimise the Group fleet, network, sales, distribution and loyalty assets. I’ve therefore decided that the time is right for me to step down as Chairman of the Air India Express Board,” Wilson said in his communication to staff.
“I will obviously remain keenly interested in Air India Express’s progress and success, fully support Nipun and Basil in their additional roles, and remain responsible for the overall performance of the Air India Group,” Wilson added.
