Akasa Air has appointed Aditi Roy as Head of Corporate Communications and CSR, bringing aboard a seasoned communications professional whose career spans pharma, healthcare, and integrated PR. The move signals the young airline's intent to sharpen its public narrative as it continues to scale rapidly across domestic and international routes.
Roy arrives from Novartis India, where she spent nine years building a reputation as a thoughtful, impact-oriented communicator. In her most recent role as Associate Director for External Engagement, Pharma Communications, and Patient Engagement, she worked at the intersection of science, empathy, and public trust. It is a combination that, in many ways, mirrors the brief she now walks into: an airline that has staked its identity on being human-first, sustainability-focused, and disruptive.
Before Novartis, Roy amassed agency-side experience across some of the industry’s most respected names, including SPAG Asia, Fleishman-Hillard, Text 100, K2 Communications, and MullenLowe Lintas Group. That breadth of client exposure, cutting across industries and communication formats, gives her a versatility that will prove useful at a carrier still in the business of building its brand story from scratch.
In a LinkedIn post announcing her transition, Roy reflected on what she was leaving behind and what drew her forward. Closing nine years at a company she described with evident affection, she wrote of the people, the trust, and the opportunity to be part of work that truly mattered. But it was her framing of the move ahead that stood out: from an organisation with a remarkable legacy to one that is beginning to build its own.
That line, spare and precise, captures something important about Akasa Air’s current moment. Launched in August 2022 and built around the vision of the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, the airline has grown with uncommon speed. It now flies to 31 destinations, including six international ones, has joined the International Air Transport Association, and inked a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways. The foundations are in place. What follows is the harder work of brand-building at scale.
Roy steps into the role at a time when Akasa’s communications function sits within a broader marketing structure overseen by Chief Marketing Officer Naarayan T V, who joined in August 2025. The CSR mandate she carries is particularly worth watching. Indian aviation has long treated sustainability as a footnote. Akasa, at least in its stated positioning, has tried to make it a headline.
For Roy, the assignment is a departure from healthcare into a sector with its own rhythms, pressures, and public scrutiny. But communications at its core is about credibility, and that is a currency she has spent years accumulating. Akasa, for its part, seems to have found someone who understands that a brand is not just what you say about yourself. It is what you make people believe.