Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has told employees that the airline is not planning any layoffs despite growing financial and operational challenges across the global aviation industry. Speaking during an internal town hall, Wilson admitted that the airline had a tough year and announced that salary hikes would be delayed for now. However, employees will still receive performance-linked variable pay for the previous year.
“We do not anticipate any need for retrenchments,” Wilson said during the interaction with employees.
ilson said Air India achieved 56% of its financial targets and 76.4% of its overall yearly targets. Based on that performance, employees will receive 76.4% of the variable pay linked to those goals. At the same time, the airline has decided to pause annual salary increments until conditions improve.
“We have budgeted to pay it when the environment gets better, but we’re going to withhold it for now,” Wilson said. He added that the company would continue reviewing the situation depending on how the market changes through the year.
The Air India chief also spoke about the difficult situation facing airlines worldwide. He pointed to rising jet fuel prices, geopolitical tensions, and longer flight routes caused by airspace disruptions, all of which have increased operating costs for airlines.
Wilson said flights to the UK that earlier took around eight hours are now taking nearly 12 hours, leading to much higher fuel consumption and added expenses.
READ: Ticketmaster cuts 350 jobs across 25 countries despite strong revenue growth (
“It is not a great environment to be running an airline,” Wilson remarked, adding that many airlines around the world are struggling because of high fuel prices. He also said the aviation sector had been hit by several “Black Swan events” over the past year.
Warning employees about the months ahead, Wilson said the airline could face a “very, very difficult year ahead” unless oil prices come down, consumer confidence improves, and the situation around the Strait of Hormuz becomes more stable.
Wilson also acknowledged that Air India’s losses for FY26 were higher than expected.
“We weren’t targeting a profit this year, we were targeting a certain amount of loss. We lost more than we were targeting to lose,” he said.