Aloke Singh to step down as head of Air India Express after steering merger-led expansion

New Delhi: Aloke Singh, credited with transforming Air India Express from a niche state carrier into a private sector player, will step down as managing director and chief executive officer on March 19. His departure marks the end of his five-year tenure, which included the airline’s sale to the Tata Group and its merger with AIX Connect.

Air India Express is the low-cost subsidiary of Air India.

Singh did not name his successor but said captain Hamish Maxwell, an advisor to the MD, would take over as chief executive, a regulatory role responsible for ensuring the airline’s safety oversight and operational standards.

The company has yet to officially announce a successor for the CEO position.

Singh took over as chief executive officer of Air India Express on November 9, 2020, when the airline was still state-owned. He continued to run the carrier following the Tata Group’s reacquisition of Air India in January 2022, and later became chief executive of the combined low-cost carrier following the group’s restructuring.

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In an internal memo to employees announcing his departure on Monday, Singh said the past five years have been marked by operational challenges, large-scale integration and rapid expansion.

“After 5 extraordinary years, my tenure at AIX will end on March 19. Together, we have taken the airline through a defining transformation process – a complex merger, a complex integration, creating a new brand, growing the fleet fourfold – taking the airline from a sub-scale, niche player to India’s 3rd largest narrow-body operator, with a fleet of 100+ aircraft, a network in 14 countries in India and the region with 8,300 employees. “None of them came without challenges, all of them were deserved,” he wrote.

The brand mentioned in the note is Air India Express, which announced its new brand identity in 2023, which includes a palette of express orange, turquoise, tangerine and ice blue.

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Outperforms parent brand

A major milestone during his tenure was the merger of Air India Express with AirAsia India, which was officially completed in October 2024. The consolidation created a single low-cost airline platform within the Air India group and forms a central part of the Tata Group’s strategy to streamline airline operations.

Integration involved combining fleets, operational systems, networks and workforce structures even as the airline’s capacity increased; exercise industry experts describe it as one of the most complex airline integrations undertaken in India.

“Singh arrived at a time when Air India Express was still state-owned and oversaw both privatization and merger with AirAsia India. It was a complex integration process and scaling up simultaneously was challenging. The airline is now approaching operating profitability, which shows that the process and strategy put in place is starting to pay off,” said Mark D. Martin, managing director of aviation consultancy Martin Consulting.

Under Singh’s leadership, Air India Express has quadrupled its fleet to more than 100 aircraft while expanding its domestic and short-haul international network to 14 overseas destinations.

The airline now flies to more cities in India than full-service carrier Air India.

Internal projections of Air India Express were reviewed: MintIt shows that the carrier is the second largest airline in India in terms of domestic routes, connections between cities are 110 to 70 for Air India, and domestic stations (refers to a city or airport from which the airline operates flights and operates) is 45 to 43 for Air India. Air India Express operates 75 international routes compared to Air India’s 60.

Air India Express has an almost equal split between international and domestic routes at 54:46 (compared to Indigo at 70:30).

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The road to profitability

The number of employees also increased to approximately 8,300 during the expansion phase and is now approaching financial stability.

Air India Express is expected to report an operating profit in the second half of FY26, for the first time since privatisation, supported by improved unit economics, tighter cost controls and stronger operational performance, management said at a town hall meeting for employees led by chairman Nipun Aggarwal in February.

This comes after a note by Crisil Ratings regarding the December 2025 merger of AIX Connect Pvt. Ltd and Air India Express Ltd’s agreements have been completed.

Consolidated revenue (for Air India Express) up 26% during FY25 ₹16,138 crore, according to Crisil, supported by fleet expansion and healthy passenger load factors across domestic and international operations. Losses expanded ₹10,955 crore in FY25, the said note said.

However, the rating agency highlighted concerns about consolidated operating margin falling to negative 23.21% in FY25 from 5.7% a year ago due to rising costs due to rapid fleet build-up.