New Delhi, March 2 Air India Express Managing Director Aloke Singh will step down on March 19 after completing his tenure at the Tata Group-owned airline.
"After 5 extraordinary years, my tenure at AIX will conclude on March 19th. I could not be prouder of what we built and who we became in building it," Singh said in a message to the staff on Monday.
Singh has the distinction of leading Air India Express, which has significantly expanded its operations, under the ownership of both the government and the Tata Group. Also, his departure will mark a top-level change at the airline after coming under the Tata Group in January 2022.
He joined the then government-owned Air India Express as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on November 9, 2020, and was appointed as the MD for a three-year period on March 19, 2023.
Air India Express is the country's second largest airline in terms of the number of domestic and international routes as well as domestic stations, according to an official.
In the message to the staff, Singh, who generally keeps a low profile, quoted Sufi poet Rumi's lines "You are not a drop in the ocean; you are an ocean in a drop" and mentioned that "ours has been a journey without parallel. I would not trade a single chapter".
Under his stewardship, Air India Express completed the merger of AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) with itself as well as the transition process before the merger, which was completed on October 1, 2024.
"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 & 14 countries in the region, with 8,300 employees. None of it came without challenges. All of it was earned," Singh said.
Striking a philosophical note, the outgoing Air India Express MD stressed that more than the milestones and the wins, "what will endure is what lived between them the resolve you showed when things were hardest, the professionalism you brought when the stakes were highest, and a camaraderie that made this feel far more than a job".
Captain Hamish Maxwell, who is the Chief Operations Officer, will be the new Accountable Manager for the airline.
Currently, Singh is the MD and Accountable Manager.
