Air India has a new boss. The airline has appointed Tewolde Gebremariam as its Chief Executive Officer — the person in charge of running the company — succeeding Campbell Wilson, who stepped down in April. The airline's board unanimously chose Gebremariam after a long search, saying they picked him for his leadership and experience, according to BBC News. Air India announced the appointment in a press release dated August 5, 2026, on its own newsroom page (Air India Newsroom). The airline also named P Balaji as Group Head.

So who is Gebremariam? He previously ran Ethiopian Airlines for over a decade. Under his leadership, the airline nearly tripled the number of planes it flew and became the most profitable airline in Africa (BBC News. But the job at Air India will be much harder.

Here is the background. Air India used to be owned by the Indian government, but Tata Group, a large Indian company, bought it in 2022. The hope was that private ownership would fix problems that had built up over many years. Campbell Wilson, who had worked at Singapore Airlines, was brought in to lead after the purchase. He said in 2024 that he would leave in 2026 and helped prepare the airline for the change. N Chandrasekaran is the chairman of Air India.

The airline Gebremariam is taking over is in serious trouble. Air India reported a record loss of nearly $2.3bn (£1.7bn) in the month before his appointment. It has cut nearly a third of its international flights. Chairman Chandrasekaran has said that fixing the airline could take up to ten years (BBC News.

On top of the money problems, there is a safety crisis. In June of last year, an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London crashed, killing 260 people. The final report on what caused the crash is due in October. That report will come out during Gebremariam's first months on the job, bringing extra attention from regulators and the public.

There have been other signs of trouble, too. In March, an Air India flight from Delhi to Vancouver had to turn around after flying for nearly eight hours because it did not have permission to enter Canadian airspace. This showed how hard it is for the airline to keep its international flights running reliably, especially after cutting back so much of its overseas network.

The wider airline industry in India is also struggling. Costs are rising, international routes are disrupted because of the Iran war, plane deliveries are delayed, and regulators are watching more closely. Air India has 198 aircraft and flies nearly 5,000 flights a week to 91 destinations, according to the airline's website. Keeping that operation running smoothly while the whole industry is under pressure will be difficult even for someone with Gebremariam's experience.

The broader context here is a privatization that is still finding its footing. Tata Group bought Air India believing that private management could undo decades of decline under government ownership. Wilson's time as CEO started that process. But a deadly crash, record financial losses, and major cutbacks have made the job much harder for whoever came next. Gebremariam's success at Ethiopian Airlines is exactly the kind of experience Tata's board was looking for. The question is whether what worked in Africa can work in a market as large, heavily regulated, and disrupted as India's.

The October crash report will be one of the first big tests. What it says could affect how regulators treat the airline, whether the public trusts it, and what happens to Air India's international ambitions at a time when it has already shrunk its global reach. Gebremariam will have to deal with the fallout from that report while also tackling the financial losses and plane shortages that were there before he arrived.