New Delhi: Aloke Singh, credited with transforming Air India Express from a niche state carrier to a private-sector player, will step down as managing director and chief executive officer on 19 March. His departure marks the end of a five-year stint that covered the airline’s sale to the Tata Group and its merger with AIX Connect.
Air India Express is Air India’s low-cost subsidiary.
Singh did not name a successor but said captain Hamish Maxwell, who was the MD’s adviser, will take over as accountable manager, a regulatory role responsible for ensuring the airline’s safety oversight and operational standards.
The company is yet to formally announce a successor for the chief executive role.
Singh took charge as chief executive officer of Air India Express on 9 November 2020, when the airline was still state-owned. He continued to lead the carrier after the Tata Group reacquired Air India in January 2022, and later became managing director of the combined low-cost airline following the group’s restructuring.
In an internal note to employees announcing his departure on Monday, Singh described the past five years as marked by operational challenges, large-scale integration, and rapid expansion.
“After 5 extraordinary years, my tenure at AIX will conclude on 19 March. Together, we have taken the airline through a period of defining transformation—navigating an intricate merger, a complex integration, creating a new brand, growing fleet four-fold—propelling the airline from a sub-scale, niche player to India’s 3rd largest narrow-body operator, a fleet of 100+ aircraft, a network across India and 14 countries in the region, with 8,300 employees. None of it came without challenges. All of it was earned,” he wrote.
The brand mentioned in the note is Air India Express, which unveiled a new brand identity in 2023, featuring a palette of express orange, turquoise, tangerine, and ice blue.
Outpacing parent brand
A key milestone during his tenure was the merger of Air India Express with AirAsia India, formally completed in October 2024. The consolidation created a single low-cost airline platform within the Air India group and formed a central part of the Tata Group’s strategy to streamline airline operations.
The integration involved combining fleets, operational systems, networks and workforce structures even as the airline expanded capacity—an exercise industry experts describe as among the most complex airline integrations undertaken in India.
“Singh came in when Air India Express was still state-owned and oversaw both privatisation and the merger with AirAsia India. That was a complex integration process, and scaling up simultaneously was challenging. The airline is now approaching operating profitability, indicating that the processes and strategy put in place are beginning to deliver results,” said Mark D. Martin, chief executive of aviation consultancy Martin Consulting.
Under Singh’s leadership, Air India Express expanded its fleet fourfold to more than 100 aircraft while widening its domestic and short-haul international network across 14 overseas destinations.
Now, the airline flies to more cities in India than its full-service carrier, Air India.
Internal projections of Air India Express, reviewed by Mint, show the carrier is the second largest airline in India in terms of domestic routes, connections between cities, which stood at 110 vs 70 for Air India, and domestic stations—refers to a city or airport where the airline operates flights and maintains operations—stand at 45 vs 43 for Air India. Air India Express operates 75 international routes, compared with 60 for Air India.
Air India Express has a nearly even allocation between international and domestic routes at 54:46 (vs Indigo at 70:30).
Path to profitability
Employee strength also grew to about 8,300 during the expansion phase, and is now moving closer to financial stabilisation.
During a February employee town hall led by chairman Nipun Aggarwal, management said Air India Express is projected to report an operating profit in the second half of FY26—its first since privatisation—supported by improving unit economics, tighter cost controls, and stronger operational performance.
This comes after a December 2025 note by Crisil Ratings said that the merger of AIX Connect Pvt. Ltd and Air India Express Ltd have been completed.
During FY25, consolidated revenue (for Air India Express) grew 26% to ₹16,138 crore, as per Crisil, supported by fleet expansion and healthy passenger load factors across domestic and international operations. Losses have widened to ₹10,955 crore in FY25, the note mentioned.
The rating agency, however, highlighted concerns with consolidated operating margin declining to negative 23.21% in FY25 from 5.7% a year ago due to higher costs linked to rapid fleet induction.