Tewolde Gebremariam: A storied career
NEW DELHI: Seven years before he was named to lead Air India, Tewolde Gebremariam stood at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed
NEW DELHI: Seven years before he was named to lead Air India, Tewolde Gebremariam stood at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people and helped trigger the worldwide grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets.That disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic that followed became two of the gravest crises he faced. It may help explain why the Tata Group turned to him to run Air India.The job that Tewolde faces at the Indian airline is formidable: he must restore confidence in its safety after a crash last year killed 260 people, stem losses, modernize an ageing fleet and navigate Pakistan's ban on Indian carriers using its airspace.The surprise appointment of outsider Tewolde signals a shift in Tata Group's turnaround of the airline, from merging with Indian carrier Vistara and placing large aircraft orders, to the harder task of running it safely, reliably and profitably. Tata owns about 75% of Air India, with Singapore Airlines owning the rest.Reuters reported in May that the search had narrowed to two candidates - Air India commercial chief Nipun Aggarwal and Vinod Kannan, former CEO of Vistara, now at Singapore Airlines - although no decision had been made.Also read | Air India names Ethiopian Airlines veteran Tewolde Gebremariam as CEOAir India and Ethiopian Airlines did not respond to emails seeking comment, and Tewolde did not respond to a message sent on LinkedIn.An internal Air India document reviewed by Reuters describes Tewolde as a "change leader" with special skills in crisis management, who joined Ethiopian in 1985 in the cargo unit and rose to run Africa's largest airline group.
He was named African CEO of the Year in 2012.In 11 years as CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, the Air India document says, he turned it into Africa's leading carrier, spending $1 billion to build businesses around its Addis Ababa hub, including the continent's largest cargo terminal, an aviation university, maintenance hangars, a catering centre and a 1,000-room hotel.Tewolde will be replacing Campbell Wilson, who resigned in April and whose notice period ends on September 30. Air India has not said when Tewolde will formally take charge.CRASHES, COVID AND COMPETITIONThe gravest crisis Tewolde handled came on March 10, 2019, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. Tewolde grounded the carrier's remaining 737 MAX jets the same day, ahead of orders by regulators in China and the United States.Also read| Civil Aviation Minister Naidu says no proposal to blend ethanol with ATFAbout a year later, the COVID pandemic wiped out most of Ethiopian's passenger business. Without a state bailout, Tewolde turned to cargo, leaning on freighters and a cargo terminal built years earlier and converting passenger jets to carry freight.The internal document lists managing in a "hyper competitive environment" as one of Tewolde's skills - a test that awaits him in India, where IndiGo carries the bulk of domestic traffic and foreign carriers compete hard for lucrative international routes.Also, the June 2025 crash of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner has intensified regulatory scrutiny of the carrier, which has since faced warnings and a penalty over separate safety and compliance lapses.Tewolde is no stranger to India, having run Ethiopian's India and Southeast Asia business from Mumbai in the mid-1990s.He left the airline in March 2022 due to health issues.
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