Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has resigned as chairman of the airline's low-cost carrier, Air India Express. Wilson will be replaced by chief commercial officer Nipun Aggarwal, who is already on the board of AIX. Aggarwal will assume the chairman role while continuing his Air India Chief Commercial Officer duties.

This comes six months after Tata Group’s low-cost airlines, Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly Air Asia India), merged in October 2024.

“As you will be well aware, over the past 18 months we completed many structural changes critical to transforming and rebuilding of the Air India Group, including merging our four airlines into two, consolidating our non-flying teams in Gurugram, and refreshing the leadership teams of both Air India and Air India Express,” Wilson said in a memo sent to employees.

“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,” said Wilson.

“With this structural work largely complete, the task at hand now to full leverage and optimize 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, and for Nipun Aggarwal, who is already on the board of AIX, to assume the Chairman role (while also continuing his Air India Chief Commercial Officer duties), thus enabling greater coordination of the Group’s network and commercial efforts,” he added.

Concurrently, to ensure operational synergy between the airlines, Capt Basil Kwauk, Air India Chief Operating Officer, will replace Wilson on the Air India Express board, once the necessary regulatory approvals are secured, the memo said. “I will obviously remain keenly interested in Air India Express’s progress and success, fully support Nipun and Basil in their additional roles, remain responsible for the overall performance of the Air India Group,” he added.

Before joining Air India, Wilson, was the CEO of budget carrier Scoot, the wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. Wilson started off as a management trainee with Singapore Airlines in New Zealand in 1996. He then worked for the airline in Canada, Hong Kong and Japan before returning to Singapore in 2011 as the founding CEO of Scoot, which he led until 2016.

In 2023, Air India made its largest aircraft purchase to date, ordering 470 planes worth $70 billion from two major aerospace manufacturers — France’s Airbus and the U.S.-based Boeing — to grow its fleet. The deal included 250 aircraft from Airbus and 220 from Boeing. Later, in December 2024, the airline followed up with an additional order for 100 Airbus planes, consisting of 10 widebody A350s and 90 narrowbody A320 Family jets, including the A321neo.

Last month, Wilson warned that the global aircraft shortage will continue for the next four to five years. The supply of narrowbody jet engines, business and first-class seats, and some elements of aircraft fuselages, will see some pinch points, Wilson said at an event in Delhi.

To deal with slow aircraft deliveries, Air India Express has been inducting Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft that Boeing made for Chinese carriers but were never delivered.