Southwest Airlines names IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal as Chairman

IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has been appointed as the Chairman of American carrier Southwest Airlines.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Billionaire and IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has been appointed as the Chairman of American carrier Southwest Airlines.

Mr. Gangwal, who joined the board of Southwest in July this year, had also acquired shares worth USD 108 million of the airline recently. His appointment as the board chair comes a little over a week after Southwest settled issues with Elliott Investment Management, one of the airline’s largest shareholders, that had sought sweeping changes at the carrier.

On Monday, Southwest announced the appointment of Mr. Gangwal as the independent Chair of the Board of Directors and also named new Board Committee Chairs.

“We are embarking on the next era of change at Southwest as we build upon its many successes and storied past. Our critical priority as a newly constituted board is to come together to work closely with Bob Jordan and the rest of the management team to return the carrier to superior financial performance,” Mr. Gangwal said in a statement.

Jordan is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of the board.

Recently, Mr. Gangwal purchased shares of Southwest for $108 million.

According to seven recent filings made by Southwest to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gangwal has purchased 3.6 million shares of the airline through multiple transactions, with prices ranging between USD 29 and USD 30 apiece.

Together, shares are worth around $108 million and the transactions were done on September 30 and October 1, as per filings.

An aviation industry veteran, Gangwal started his airline career with United Airlines in 1984. He had also served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Airways Group. Among other roles, he was also the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Worldspan Technologies.

After completing his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1975, Gangwal also earned an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In April 2022, Gangwal announced donating Rs 100 crore to IIT Kanpur for setting up the School of Medical Sciences and Technology on the campus.

He is the co-founder of IndiGo, India’s largest airline but had a bitter fallout with co-founder Rahul Bhatia and the differences came out in the open in 2019. Gangwal, in February 2022, resigned from the board of directors of InterGlobe Aviation, saying he would gradually reduce his equity stake in the airline over the next five years.

In August 2024, Gangwal and his family trust sold a total of 5.83 per cent stake in the carrier for about Rs 10,500 crore.

After the share sale, Gangwal’s stake in InterGlobe Aviation — parent of IndiGo — came down to 5.31 per cent from 5.89 per cent while that of Chinkerpoo Family Trust reduced to 8.24 per cent from 13.49 per cent.

The combined shareholding of Gangwal and Chinkerpoo Family Trust has fallen to 13.55 per cent from 19.38 per cent.