Addressing close to 700 employees and the leadership team across the Air India headquarters and Air India Training Academy in Gurugram, Chandrasekaran urged them to stay on course, terming the accident the most "heartbreaking" crisis of his career.
The airline plans to deploy A380 to Mumbai instead.
B747-8 introduction marks Asia launch of airline's all-new Business Class.
Five decades ago, 87 plane crashes took away the lives of 1,597 people.