Air India’s New CEO Gets a Clear Mandate: Safety, Reliability and Profit

Skift Take New CEO Tewolde Gebremariam is taking over a very different Air India from the one Campbell Wilson inherited in 2022. The airline has more aircraft, more resources and bigger ambitions, not to forget, much higher expectations. Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran told employees on Monday the airline’s next phase will be judged on four things: safety, customer trust, reliable operations and tighter control of costs. The message came at an employee town hall meeting on Monday as the company began transferring leadership from outgoing CEO Campbell Wilson to incoming chief Tewolde Gebremariam. The session, addressed jointly by Chandrasekaran, Wilson and Gebremariam, marked a formal changing of the guard at India’s flag carrier as it works through what the chairman described as one of the most difficult stretches in its history. The town hall also marked the end of Wilson’s tenure. Air India has spent more than four years rebuilding itself after the Tata Group took control in 2022. The rebuild included a major fleet order, new aircraft and cabins, technology upgrades, the merger with Vistara and the integration of its other airlines. But the transformati