Former British Airways CEO And Aviation Veteran Alex Cruz Likely To Be Air India CEO: Report

Alex Cruz was the chairman and CEO of British Airways for about five years till 2020 and before that he had headed Spanish low-cost Vueling.

New Delhi: Former British Airways CEO and aviation veteran Alex Cruz is likely to be the new CEO of Air India, a report by TOI said on Thursday. Alex Cruz has been credited with rich experience of heading both full service and low-cost airlines.

Alex Cruz was the chairman and CEO of British Airways for about five years till 2020 and before that he had headed Spanish low-cost Vueling.

As per the reports, the British Airways was worst affected by the COVID pandemic and had to in October 2020 cut 13,000 jobs. At that time, Cruz had stepped down as the airline’s chief executive.

The LinkedIn profile of Alex Cruz shows he is currently an investor, board member and adviser on some companies. Cruz is also a professor at the IESE Business School.

It must be noted that the Tata Group had last week took over Air India and is learnt to be finalising a team of top notch professionals to revive the airline. The reports also claimed that the new board of Air India is likely to be led by Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran himself.

The Tata Group has not yet made their plans for the airline structure. Tata Group is now running AI, AI Express, Vistara and AirAsia India.

As per the report, Vistara will remain a separate entity till Singapore Airlines, 49 percent stakeholder in it, agrees to a merger with AI.

In the meantime, the Tatas have already taken some experts on board to have some visible improvements on the “software” side of the now-ageing fleet.