Air India’s next CEO faces losses, safety lapses and airspace woes

Campbell Wilson is leaving Air India with a blunt warning for his successor: the job will come with his or her “hands full.” The airline is already under pressure from a record annual loss of more than $2 billion, while Pakistan’s airspace ban, the fallout from the Iran conflict and a strong U.S. dollar are all pushing up costs and complicating operations.

Wilson made the comments in New York on May 21 and said he expected to leave in a couple of months. He also described the past 12 months as “by no means an easy or smooth ride,” a line that captures how much turbulence has hit the Tata Group-owned carrier since the turnaround was meant to gather pace. Airspace restrictions lengthen routes and burn more fuel, while a stronger dollar raises lease, maintenance and procurement expenses across the business.

The financial strain has already spread beyond Air India itself. Singapore Airlines, which owns a stake in the carrier, said Air India’s losses weighed on its own results, underscoring how the Indian airline’s recovery is now large enough to affect a major global partner. The scale of the setback matters because Air India is trying to rebuild not just profitability, but credibility after years of weak execution and service complaints.

Safety remains another immediate test for the next chief executive. India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation found 51 safety lapses in a July 2025 audit, including insufficient pilot training, use of unapproved simulators and rostering problems. Seven of those breaches were classified as serious Level I violations. The scrutiny intensified after a June 2025 crash in Ahmedabad that killed 260 people, putting operational discipline and safety culture under even sharper focus.

The leadership change also comes after a major integration milestone. Air India and Vistara completed their merger on November 12, 2024, and Air India Group said the combined airline then operated 300 aircraft across 55 domestic destinations and 48 international destinations, with 312 routes and 8,300 weekly flights. That scale gives the carrier a much bigger footprint, but it also magnifies every scheduling mistake, crew shortage and maintenance delay.

The choice of successor will shape whether the revival stays on track. The leading candidates are Vinod Kannan, a Singapore Airlines executive, and Nipun Aggarwal, Air India’s commercial head. One represents outside experience; the other, continuity. Either way, the new chief will inherit an airline still fighting to stabilize its network, restore trust and absorb shocks it cannot control.