Air India is on the hunt for a new chief executive after New Zealander Campbell Wilson announced he was quitting the airline after less than four years in the role… A tenure that has been marked by some soaring highs but also a number of catastrophic lows.
Wilson was selected as Air India’s chief executive in 2022 by the Indian conglomerate Tata & Sons, which reacquired and privatized the airline after it had spent decades under government control.
The veteran aviation executive, who had spent much of his career at Singapore Airlines, faced a massive laundry list of challenges to overcome, including merging Air India with the Tata-owned Vistara brand, reinventing Air India’s branding, retrofitting aircraft with new and improved cabins, and enhancing the airline’s service.
The business case for transforming Air India from a dilapidated and loss-making government-controlled carrier into an aviation powerhouse is, on paper, solid.
India is not only one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world, but Air India can also serve the huge Indian diaspora with non-stop flights between hubs in Delhi and Mumbai with Europe and North America, slashing flight times by using Russian airspace with zero connections.
All Air India has to do is convince passengers that it has improved just enough that making a transit stop in the Middle East or Europe no longer becomes justifiable.
Air India is definitely on the road to improving its passenger experience, from the airport to onboard, although consistency remains a massive challenge for the carrier.
There have also been some major challenges along the way: Most notably, the first-ever fatal crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner belonging to Air India on June 12, 2025.
In the aftermath of this tragic accident, Campbell had to represent Air India on the world stage, although he faced criticism for allegedly plagiarizing a condolence message that was first used by American Airlines CEO Robert Isom following the crash of an American Eagle regional jet with a Blackhawk helicopter in Washington DC.
Campbell has also had to navigate India’s incredible bureaucracy that has been blamed for multiple airline failures in the past.
It turns out that Campbell had been planning his exit for nearly two years, first telling Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran of his intentions to quit this year back in 2024.
The official announcement came on Tuesday, although Campbell will remain in post until Air India is able to find a successor.
The news came a little more than a week after Indian low-cost airline IndiGo announced that it was appointing Willie Walsh, the former British Airways chief executive and current director general of the International Air Transportation Association, as its CEO.
Walsh is set to take the helm in August after his tenure at IATA comes to an end. IndiGo had been on the hunt for a new CEO after Dutch aviation executive Pieter Elbers resigned with immediate effect over his handling of an unprecedented operational meltdown that left nearly 300,000 passengers stranded when the airline was forced to cancel flights due to pilot rostering problems.
While the departure of Elbers from IndiGo was probably a lot sooner than he would have liked, it sounds like Wilson is more than ready to leave Air India and is no doubt looking forward to a well-deserved break after leading the airline through a momentous period of change.
“The four years since Air India’s privatisation has seen the acquisition and successful merger of four airlines, an evolution from public to private sector practices along with renewal of the leadership team, workforce, culture and ways of operating,” Wilson commented after announcing his resignation.
“It has seen the complete modernization of systems, the launch of new physical products, and deployment of elevated service standards on ground and in the air, as well as 100 additional aircraft added to the fleet.”
Wilson added: “The full interior refit of legacy narrowbody aircraft has all but been completed, with deliveries of widebody aircraft with new custom-designed interiors now underway.”
“With these foundational blocks now settling and a brief window until deliveries from the nearly 600-strong aircraft orderbook commence in earnest from 2027, the time is right for me to hand over the reins for the next phase of Air India’s rise.”
