Nipun Aggarwal replaces Campbell Wilson as Air India Express Chairman

In a major leadership change at the Tata Group-run airline group, Nipun Aggarwal, chief commercial officer of Air India, has been appointed chairman of Air India Express, replacing Campbell Wilson.

 

Wilson will now serve solely as chief executive officer and managing director of Air India and is vacating his position on the board of Air India Express for Captain Basil Kwauk, chief operations officer at Air India.

 

Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary and low-cost airline under Air India.

 

Before joining Air India, Aggarwal was senior vice-president at Tata Sons, where he played a key role in transforming several Tata Group companies. He has also worked with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank, and BP PLC.

 

In contrast, Campbell Wilson is a seasoned airline executive with over two decades at Singapore Airlines, where he held various leadership roles, including founding CEO of Scoot, the group’s low-cost carrier. His career has largely been rooted in aviation and airline management.

 

In an internal message to employees, Wilson stated on Tuesday that over the past 18 months, the Air India Group has completed many structural changes critical to transforming itself, including merging its four airlines into two, consolidating its non-flying teams in Gurugram, and refreshing the leadership teams of both Air India and Air India Express.

 

Vistara was merged into Air India in November. A month earlier, AIX Connect, formerly known as AirAsia India, had merged into Air India Express.

 

Wilson stated: “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, and for Nipun Aggarwal, who is already on the board of AIX, to assume the role (while also continuing his Air India chief commercial officer duties), thus enabling greater coordination of the Group’s network and commercial efforts.”

 

Concurrently, to ensure operational synergy between the airlines, Kwauk will replace Wilson on the Air India Express board, once the necessary regulatory approvals are secured, the Air India CEO informed.

 

“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. Please join me in wishing them every success, too,” he mentioned.

 

Air India currently has about 210 planes in its fleet. Its low-cost airline subsidiary, Air India Express, has about 90 planes. Last November, Wilson had told reporters that the number of planes in the Group’s fleet could increase in the next three years to about 400 from 300.

 

While speaking at Skift India Forum 2025 last month, Wilson detailed the type of supply chain issues that have been delaying aircraft deliveries to airlines.

 

“We have placed an order for 570 planes (in the last two years). It would be fair to say that there are pinch points everywhere. In narrow-body aircraft, the pinch point is engines... There is a pinch point with respect to the supply of seats in first and business class for wide-body planes, and that has impacted our retrofit programme too,” he said.

 

“Both Boeing and Airbus have certain challenges in the production line of their aircraft because they can’t get components or parts of the fuselage from their suppliers. So, the reality is that this is going to remain a supply-constrained market — not just for India or Air India. I am talking about global aviation. It is going to remain a supply-constrained market for another four to five years,” he mentioned.

 

Air India’s aircraft retrofit programme has been delayed. It began upgrading its narrow-body planes in September last year, with completion expected by mid-2024. The airline will then start retrofitting its wide-body planes, a process set to be completed by 2027.