Tewolde Gebremariam Lands Air India’s Top Job

Why the man who built Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s biggest carrier was Air India’s pick

Air India has handed its cockpit to the executive who built Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s largest and most profitable carrier. The airline’s board named Tewolde Gebremariam as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, succeeding Campbell Wilson, following a global search overseen by a dedicated board committee.

The appointment closes one of the most closely watched executive searches in global aviation this year and puts a familiar name from Ethiopia’s corporate world in charge of India’s flag carrier at a pivotal moment in its turnaround.

The Announcement

Air India said the board committee ran a comprehensive global search before settling on Gebremariam, looking for a leader with a demonstrated record of managing large-scale airline transformations, lifting operational performance, tightening safety standards, and delivering profitable growth. Tata Sons and Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said the carrier has completed its initial phase of stabilization, integration, and fleet planning, and is now entering a critical execution and expansion stage, one he said Gebremariam’s experience building an efficient, profitable airline group leaves him well placed to lead. Gebremariam, for his part, called the appointment a profound honour and said he is looking forward to working with the board, employees, and industry stakeholders to strengthen operational reliability, customer service, and long-term growth. Air India said it will announce onboarding and transition details at a later date.

A Track Record Built for the Job

Gebremariam led Ethiopian Airlines Group for more than a decade, a run that took the carrier from a mid-sized regional operator to the continent’s dominant airline group. Ethiopian’s own account of his tenure puts revenue growth at more than four times and fleet expansion at nearly threefold over that period, alongside a build-out of Addis Ababa as a major connecting hub, an expanded maintenance and repair business, and an aviation training academy that became a regional benchmark. Those figures come from the airline’s own reporting on his tenure and should be read with that caveat, but they explain why Air India’s board settled on him.

Air India’s chairman framed the pick around timing: the carrier has finished stabilizing its operations, integrating its merged fleets, and locking in aircraft orders, and is now moving into a phase focused on execution, growth, and profitability. That is close to the position Ethiopian Airlines was in when Gebremariam took charge there, and the board appears to be betting his playbook translates.

An Ethiopian Corporate Governance Footprint

Gebremariam’s résumé extends beyond aviation into Ethiopia’s broader corporate and public institutions. He has served on the board of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the country’s largest bank, as well as on the boards of Ethio-Telecom and the Ethiopian Railway Corporation, and held governance roles with global bodies including the International Air Transport Association and the African Airlines Association. That breadth of boardroom experience across Ethiopia’s flagship state enterprises adds a governance dimension to a hire that Air India has framed primarily around operational turnaround expertise.

What Comes Next

The move follows Wilson’s resignation announcement earlier this year and lands in the same week that IndiGo, India’s largest airline by market share, brought in its own new chief executive, underscoring a broader reshuffle atop the country’s aviation sector.

For Ethiopian business circles, the appointment is another data point in a pattern worth tracking: Ethiopian-trained executives taking on some of the highest-profile turnaround jobs in global industry, a reputational dividend that outlasts any single company’s balance sheet.