New Delhi/ Mumbai, May 3: As headwinds persist for the loss-making Air India, its board is expected to discuss cost-saving plans, selection of the next CEO, financials, and other issues during the meeting scheduled for May 7, according to sources.
Headwinds for the Air India Group, which is projected to have incurred more than Rs 22,000 crore loss in the financial year ended March 2026, have multiplied with the West Asia conflict.
In the midst of an ambitious transformation plan, the Tata Group-owned airline is also scouting for a new CEO as incumbent and Singapore Airlines Group veteran Campbell Wilson will be stepping down later this year.
The sources said the board, chaired by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, will meet in Mumbai on May 7.
Various cost-saving measures, CEO succession plans, financials for 2025-26 fiscal year as well as other issues are expected to be discussed during the meeting, the sources said.
Tata Sons and Air India did not offer comments.
As part of stringent measures to save costs amid spiralling jet fuel prices, Air India is mulling unbundling meals from tickets as well as lounge access for business class travellers.
With the unbundling plan, the airline will be able to offer a different fare category where passengers do not prefer to have meals. Similarly, the business class passengers will have the option to choose lounge access, the sources said.
They also stressed that these measures are only being mulled and a final decision has not been taken on whether to go ahead with it.
Airspace restrictions in the wake of the West Asia conflict have forced the airline to take longer routes for many international destinations, which is also resulting in increased fuel burn.
The board is also expected to discuss the selection of the next CEO for the airline, in which Singapore Airlines has a 25.1 per cent stake.
Various names, including that of Air India and Singapore Airlines executives as well as possible European candidates, are doing the rounds for the next CEO position.
One of the sources indicated that there could even be the possibility of having a joint MD or CEO.
Apart from Chandrasekaran and Wilson, Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong and four others — Sanjiv Mehta, Alice Vaidyan, P R Ramesh, and P B Balaji — are members of the Air India board.
On May 1, Wilson told staff that the airspace and jet fuel price situation remains extremely challenging.
“… massive rise in jet fuel prices which, together with airspace closures and longer flying routes, has caused many of our international flights to become unprofitable to operate,” he had said in a message.
While cuts in international flights happened in April and is continuing in May, Wilson had also said the situation leaves the airline with no choice “but to further trim schedules for June and July”.
“We very much regret the disruption to our customers’ plans and our crew’s rosters, and hope that the Middle East situation settles — and the Strait of Hormuz opens — soon so that we can get back to a more normal state,” he had said.
According to him, the profitability of domestic flights has also been significantly affected, but to a lower degree due to the government’s limitation of the domestic fuel price rise to 25 per cent.
“To partially compensate for the huge spike in costs, we have increased airfares and imposed fuel surcharges but, understandably, these higher airfares impact customer demand, so we can only raise fares so far before people decide to stay home,” he had said.
On April 26, Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet told the government that the country’s airline industry is under extreme stress and on the verge of “stopping operations”, as they sought revision in jet fuel pricing and financial support.
In the monthly revision of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices on May 1, jet fuel prices for international flights were hiked by little over 5 per cent.
It is not just Indian carriers, globally, the airlines’ industry is facing challenging times due to the West Asia turmoil and many of the players have gone for cost-cutting measures while US ultra low-cost operator Spirit Airlines has shuttered operations.
Global airlines’ grouping IATA’s chief Willie Walsh on April 29, said there could be shortages of jet fuel in Asia and Europe in the coming months, and that the extraordinarily high fuel costs are increasingly being reflected in ticket prices.
