Air India sacks over 1,000 employees for ethical violations, says CEO

Air India terminated over 1,000 employees in three years for ethical violations, including misuse of staff travel benefits and baggage irregularities, CEO Campbell Wilson said. The airline is also implementing cost-cutting measures amid mounting financial losses

Mumbai: Air India has terminated more than 1,000 staff in the last three years for ethical breaches, including those for misusing the employee leisure travel system, according to the airline’s chief Campbell Wilson. Flagging that hundreds of employees are terminated every year due to non-compliance, Wilson has also emphasised that the staff need to act in the right way even when others are not looking.

As Air India implements cost-saving measures amid significant financial headwinds, Wilson made the remarks during the town hall meeting with the staff on Friday, according to sources. Tata Group-owned Air India now has around 24,000 employees.

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The airline’s CEO and MD said that over the past three years, “we have terminated more than 1,000 people for ethical breach” such as smuggling things off the plane and allowing excess baggage onto the aircraft without being charged. He also mentioned hundreds of staff who had misused the Employee Leisure Travel (ELT) system and added that such things should not happen.

In March, sources told that the airline has detected large-scale discrepancies in the utilisation of its leisure travel policy, involving more than 4,000 employees and has initiated corrective actions, including imposing penalties on the erring staff.

Air India has resorted to cost-cutting measures, including holding back annual increments for staff and asking them to cut discretionary spending as well as non-critical expenditures, warning of “tough times”. On Friday, Wilson told the staff it is going to be a “very, very difficult year” if things don’t improve on the Middle East front. The Air India Group — Air India and Air India Express — is projected to have incurred more than Rs 22,000 crore loss in the financial year ended March 2026.