Who is Nipun Aggarwal? Newly appointed Air India Express Chairman to replace Wilson Campbell

Nipun Aggarwal, the Chief Commercial Officer of Tata Group-owned Air India, has been appointed chairman of Air India Express,. He will replace Campbell Wilson. Here's all you need to know about the new Chairman of Air India Express.

Who is Nipun Aggarwal?

Nipun Aggarwal has served as Air India's Chief Commercial Officer since April 2022. He previously served as the senior vice president at Tata Sons, where he was engaged in commercial aviation, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, debt financing, and bank laws etc, according to Aggarwal's LinkedIn profile.

Before joining Tata Sons, he worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank, BP PLC, and L&T.

Aggarwal secured a Postgraduate Diploma in Management, Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He finished his Bachelor of Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Nipun Aggarwal is replacing Campbell Wilson as the Tata Group-owned airline plans to continue restructuring. Basil Kwauk, Air India's COO, will also replace Wilson Campbell on the board of Air India, Reuters reported, citing a memo.

Air India continues with the restructuring process after the Tata Group took control two years ago. Tata Group merged four airlines into two — Air India and Air India Express, which merged with AirAsia.

"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," the report quoted Wilson.

The report further mentioned that Air India is looking into multi-billion-dollar deals for widebody jets. However, the delivery of these jets has been delayed, forcing the airlines to work with older jets, leading to rising maintenance costs, delaying their modernisation and expansion efforts.

Meanwhile, China has asked airlines to refrain from taking deliveries of Boeing aircraft, due to the escalating trade war, according to Bloomberg News.

Following this development, Air India is reportedly interested in acquiring jets rejected by China. However, there is no confirmation regarding this, Reuters reported, citing people aware of the development.