Vipin Kumar, an IAS officer from the 1996 batch of the Bihar cadre has officially assumed his role as Chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Prior to this appointment, Kumar held the position of Additional Secretary in the Department of School Education & Literacy, under the Ministry of Education. In this role, he managed key initiatives, including the Samagra Shiksha Scheme, the National Education Policy-2020, and the PM-SHRI Scheme.

Kumar’s extensive administrative background includes several postings in Bihar, where he served as District Magistrate in multiple districts. He also held leadership roles as the Chairman of the Bihar Bridge Construction Corporation, Managing Director of the Bihar Milk Cooperative Federation (SUDHA), and Director of Bihar’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

A graduate in Electronics & Communication Engineering, Kumar now brings his expertise to the aviation sector, where he will lead AAI’s initiatives to advance airport infrastructure, air navigation services, and passenger amenities across India, aligning with the vision of “Viksit Bharat-2047.”

Established by an Act of Parliament, AAI was formed on April 1, 1995, by merging the National Airports Authority and the International Airports Authority of India. AAI is responsible for developing, maintaining, and managing civil aviation infrastructure nationwide. Currently, it manages 133 airports, including 110 operational airports, 28 civil enclaves, and several airports under private partnership. With an expansive reach in air navigation services over 2.8 million square nautical miles, AAI handled over a million aircraft movements, 130 million passengers, and over 688,000 metric tons of freight in the 2023-24 fiscal year, excluding JV and PPP airports.