At a town hall, new CEO Tewolde Gebremariam and Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran set the agenda for Air India moving forward, emphasising safety and operational excellence.
Gebremariam replaces outgoing leader Campbell Wilson, who departs the carrier after a difficult few years since Air India was acquired by the Tata Group. The carrier has had to manage fierce competition from low-cost IndiGo, geopolitical crises, rising fuel costs, and last year’s deadly crash in Ahmedabad.
Gebremariam joins with more than a decade of experience at the head of Ethiopian Airlines, which he was able to steer through an economic downturn and safety failures. At the town hall, he said his goal was to ‘make Air India great again’
Chandrasekaran said the airline’s biggest priority was restoring consumer trust after the Ahmedabad tragedy severely dented its safety credentials. He said Air India needs to be ‘better than the best’ on safety, a sentiment echoed by Gebremariam:
A safety-first culture has to be our number-one priority. It is not enough to say it. We must live it every day. If something is not right, stop. Every employee should feel empowered to raise concerns, and I will support that culture.
The new CEO also stressed the need to ‘get the basics right’ and deliver operational excellence. On-time departures, correct baggage deliveries, and clean aircraft were cited as key fundamentals that would help advance the customer experience, alongside minimising disruptions. 2026’s abundance of geopolitical events has provided a necessary stress test for many carriers on IROPs policy.
Outgoing CEO Campbell Wilson praised the progress achieved through employees’ hard work during his four-year tenure. Matching Gebremariam’s positive energy, Wilson asserted that Air India’s ‘best days are still ahead’.
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