Air India’s Chief Commercial Officer, Nipun Aggarwal, will now take over as chairman of the Tata Group airline’s board alongside his present role to provide better commercial coordination between the two airlines. The development comes as the present Air India Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson has stepped down from the position.
Wilson highlighted that his departure from the position comes at a time when much of the structural groundwork is complete. The next phase will focus more on optimising the airline’s fleet, network, sales, distribution and loyalty assets, he added.
“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 a letter addressed to staff, according to Indian Express.
Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India and along with its parent airline, it made a comeback to the Tata Group in 2022.
Who is Nipun Aggarwal?
Nipun Aggarwal took charge as Air India’s COO in April 2022. Prior to this, he served as the senior vice president at Tata Sons, where he played a role in multiple Tata Group businesses, including commercial aviation, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, debt financing, and bank laws, etc., according to Aggarwal’s LinkedIn profile.
Apart from the Tata Group, he has worked for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank, BP PLC, and L&T.
Aggarwal holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management, Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
