Air India has named former Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam as its new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, the airline announced on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. The appointment hands the Tata Group-owned carrier one of the most experienced airline leaders in the world as it presses ahead with a sweeping turnaround.
Gebremariam, 61, succeeds Campbell Wilson, who announced his resignation in April. Air India said its board conducted a comprehensive global search to identify the next leader, rigorously evaluating both internal and external candidates from across the world.
According to the airline, the board set out to find a leader with a proven record of managing mega-scale airline turnarounds, delivering operational excellence, fostering a strong culture of safety and service, and driving profitable expansion. Air India described Gebremariam as “widely recognized as one of the most successful aviation chief executives,” citing the track record that it said made him uniquely suited to the role.
That track record was built over more than a decade at the helm of Ethiopian Airlines Group. During his tenure as chief executive, Gebremariam oversaw a multi-billion-dollar expansion that transformed the carrier from a regional operator into Africa’s largest and most profitable airline group, widening its network across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and building one of the continent’s most modern wide-body fleets.
He now inherits a very different challenge. Air India was privatized and returned to the Tata Group in 2022 after decades in state ownership, and the group has since been working through an ambitious multi-year overhaul spanning new aircraft orders, cabin refreshes and the integration of its various airline brands. The task is to convert that heavy investment into consistent operational performance and sustained profitability.
The choice of an external veteran with deep turnaround experience signals that Air India’s board wants proven airline leadership to steer the next phase rather than an internal continuity candidate. Gebremariam’s record of scaling Ethiopian’s long-haul network is likely to be closely watched as Air India expands its own international footprint.
Air India operates a growing wide-body fleet that includes the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on long-haul routes, alongside narrow-body aircraft on its domestic and regional network. The leadership transition comes as the carrier continues to reposition itself as a full-service global airline under Tata ownership.
Sources: Bloomberg, Skift. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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