Tata Sons Appoints SIA Veteran Campbell Wilson as MD, CEO of Air India

Tata Sons Thursday said it has appointed Campbell Wilson, a veteran at its partner Singapore Airlines, as the new chief executive of Air India.
"The Air India board approved the appointment of Wilson subject to requisite regulatory approvals. Wilson, 50, has 26 years of aviation industry expertise across both full service and low-cost airlines," Tata Sons said in a statement.

"Air India is at the cusp of an exciting journey to become one of the best airlines in the world, offering world-class products and services with a distinct customer experience that reflects Indian warmth and hospitality. I am excited to join Air India and Tata colleagues in the mission of realising that ambition,” said Wilson.

Wilson is currently the CEO of Scoot, Singapore Airlines' low cost, medium-to-long haul subsidiary airline. Former Vistara chief Leslie Thng will replace Wilson at Scoot.

As the new chief of Air India, Wilson will helm the aviation-to-automobile conglomerate's ambitious mission of turning around the beleaguered airline, implementing a much-needed revv up of its service standards and integrating operations with its AirAsia India and possibly Vistara, Tata's jointly owned airline with SIA.

Air India recently made AirAsia India its wholly owned subsidiary. It will likely be merged with its low cost international unit Air India Express.

Wilson started off as a management trainee with Singapore Airlines (SIA) in New Zealand in 1996. He then worked for SIA in Canada, Hong Kong and Japan before returning to Singapore in 2011 as the founding CEO of Scoot, which he led until 2016.

He then served as the senior vice president, sales and marketing of SIA, where he oversaw pricing, distribution, eCommerce, merchandising, brand and marketing, global sales and the airline’s overseas offices, before returning for a second stint as the CEO of Scoot in April 2020.

It is widely believed that Wilson’s appointment may have been recommended by SIA.

"One can't be sure whether this is part of a broader plan to synergise Vistara and Air India. But Campbell has resigned from SIA. Also it's very clear that the Tatas turned to their partner SIA as there was a weak or inadequate response to their offer for Air India CEO," said an old acquaintance of Wilson.

But added that he does not have any turnaround experience.

"Campbell is unlike most CEOs. He is a cool guy and a maverick. He started Scoot, which was quite a unique proposition--a low cost long haul carrier-- from the house of SIA. But he has a mammoth task at hand. And he doesn't have any experience in turning around airlines," the acquaintance added.

The Tatas have been rejigging and adding to the airline's top management and board.

The conglomerate recently appointed Sandeep Verma, previously with Vistara and SpiceJet as its head of in-flight services.

In April, it appointed the conglomerate’s vice-president Nipun Aggarwal as chief commercial officer and accountable manager. Aggarwal was one of the key people handling the Air India privatisation deal. The company has appointed Suresh Dutt Tripathi, former HR head at Tata Steel, as the airline’s chief human resources officer.

Satya Ramaswamy, head of strategic initiatives at Tata Digital, is now the chief digital and technology officer at the airline. Rajesh Dogra, a TCS veteran who headed the Passport Seva programme, is now head of customer experience and ground handling at Air India.Before that, Chandrasekaran took over as Air India’s chairman. Hindustan Unilever chairman Sanjiv Mehta and former General Insurance Corporation chairperson Alice Vaidyan were appointed as independent directors.Tata Sons also recast the board of Air India, moving the airline’s executives who held board positions to senior management roles. Air India veterans such as finance director Vinod Hejmadi, commercial director Meenakshi Malik, personnel director Amrita Sharan, and operations director RS Sandhu have stepped down from the airline’s board.

Hejmadi has been re-appointed as the chief financial officer, Sandhu will be chief of operations while Malik and Sharan will be advising chairman N Chandrasekaran on commercial, technology and HR and subsequently CEO Wilson.

Tata Sons formally took over Air India on January 27, 69 years after the government nationalised and took control of the airline from its founder JRD Tata in August 1953.

The group announced the winning bidder for Air India in October with a bid amount of Rs18,000 crore. The deal also includes the sale of Air India Express and ground handling arm AISATS.

Tata Sons first planned senior management appointment Mehmet Ilker Ayci — the former chairman of Turkish Airlines — as CEO was a botch-up as Ayci turned down the offer saying the news was “coloured” by Indian media. Around the time of Tata’s offer to him, news emerged of his alleged links with the terrorist group Al Qaeda.