Air India has a new boss, and he’s walking into a storm.
Tewolde Gebremariam, the former CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, has been named Air India’s next chief executive. He takes over from Campbell Wilson, who stepped down in April after leading the airline since Tata Group bought it from the government in 2022.
The board says Gebremariam was chosen unanimously after a wide search. Chairman N Chandrasekaran said the airline has finished its “stabilisation and integration” phase under Wilson and is now moving into “execution and expansion.”
Gebremariam isn’t new to tough jobs. He ran Ethiopian Airlines for more than 10 years and grew it from a regional carrier into Africa’s largest and most profitable airline. He nearly tripled the fleet, and guided the company through two major crises: the 2019 Boeing 737 Max crash that killed 157 people, and Covid, when he kept the airline in the black by pushing cargo.
Now the challenge is bigger. Air India is dealing with heavy losses and ongoing safety questions. Last month the airline reported a record loss of nearly $2.3bn (£1.7bn). Chandrasekaran has warned a full turnaround could take up to 10 years, and the airline has already cut about a third of its international flights.
The biggest shadow is last June’s Ahmedabad-London crash that killed 260 people. The final investigation report is due in October. There have been other issues too, like a Delhi-Vancouver flight that had to turn back in March after flying nearly eight hours because it didn’t have clearance for Canadian airspace.
Air India runs 198 aircraft and about 5,000 weekly flights to 91 destinations. But the wider Indian aviation market is also under pressure from higher costs, Iran-related route disruptions, aircraft delivery delays, and stricter regulation.
Aviation analysts think Gebremariam’s experience with crisis management could help. Sanjay Lazar of Avialaz Consultants told the BBC that Gebremariam earned loyalty at Ethiopian by backing pilots and engineers during tough times.
Gebremariam says he wants to build a “world-class global airline” that reflects India’s economic growth. His to-do list, according to experts: fix workplace culture, boost morale, speed up fleet upgrades that have been delayed, and redesign the route network to cut losses.
Air India hasn’t announced his start date yet. Details will come later.
