Inside Air India's Transformation with CEO Campbell Wilson
📅 Jun 23, 2026Air India Official8 MIN27266 VIEWS41 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS
In the first episode of this six-part series, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson shares the vision, strategy, and scale of Air India's transformation journey.
Discover how Air India is modernising its fleet, upgrading the customer experience, investing in technology, and building the foundations of a world-class global airline. From new aircraft and cabin upgrades to operational improvements and digital innovation, this conversation offers an inside look at one of the most ambitious transformations in aviation.
Courtesy - @Mashable_India
What Campbell Wilson said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Campbell Wilson, CEO of Air India, discussed the airline's transformation since Tata Group's takeover in 2022. He described inheriting a 92-year-old airline with decrepit facilities, including a snake-infested training center and monkeys in the head office. Wilson said the turnaround will take five to seven years, with most heavy lifting done but legacy widebody reconfiguration pending. He detailed a 600-aircraft order, up from 470, with first deliveries in 2026, representing $70-80 billion in list price. He claimed the app has won awards, the A350's NPS matches top airlines, and Air India is the most improved airline globally over 18 months, now rated four-star. Wilson acknowledged inconsistency, targeting world-class status by 2028. He noted the training academy, largest in South Asia, trains 2,200 people daily. He compared the effort to a test match, not T20.
Key takeaways
Air India targets world-class status by 2028, with current four-star rating and most improved airline recognition over 18 months.
Fleet order increased from 470 to 600 aircraft, with first widebody and narrowbody deliveries in 2026.
Fleet modernization investment totals $70-80 billion at list price, plus $400 million for existing aircraft interiors.
Training academy, largest in South Asia, processes 2,200 people daily for safety and service training.
A very proud history but a very mixed history as well. There were monkeys in the air and deer in the head office at Connaught Place. The crew training center in Mumbai was infested with snakes.
Aircrafts million dollar tech upgrades a 5-year plan to go from struggling to world class but can Air India actually pull it off? Mammoth aviation transformation. Let's kick it off with the conversation with the CEO of Air India, Mr. Campbell Wilson.
Nice to see you, too. You didn't inherit a startup. You got a legacy brand. I mean, it's a mammoth of an airline that we've loved. I've grown up looking at. How is it working around from that day to where we've come?
It's certainly been an incredibly busy four years. Yes. This last four years has been focused on the turnaround of a 92-year-old legacy airline that carried a very famous name, a very proud history, but a very mixed history as well. Periods in which it was amongst the best in the world and periods in which it was clearly very not.
It's been a journey that's involved at current times about 25,500 people and I think over the last four years there's been significant progress with more to come.
Well, Air India had been challenged for cash for some decades and that was reflected across the organization. For example, many of the premises that the organization was operating from were quite decrepit. The crew training center in Mumbai was infested with snakes.
There were monkeys in the air and deer in the head office at Connaught Place. There's also because it was a public sector company, there wasn't the performance management practices of a private organization. Technology hadn't been upgraded. So most people to the extent they used email were using Gmail because the company email system was so bad. And so that was the organization that we inherited in 2022. When I was first employed, I was asked how long it would take and I said it'll take five to seven years.
I think the reality is that it will take five to seven years. Most of the heavy lifting has been done now but there is a long tail of things that need to be completed such as the reconfiguration of some of the legacy widebody aircraft which is contingent on seat supply and certification. That process has started.
But you're doing all of this while also being in operation. While being in operation, while doing a complete transfusion of systems and process and culture and people, we also merged four airlines into two. During this same period, we took delivery of more than 100 new aircraft into the fleet. Complete rebranding, uplifting of product, uplifting of service levels, uplifting of training, building a training academy, building a flight simulator center, building a flying skill, building a maintenance and repair base. There's been many many balls being juggled in the air.
Could you explain to us why it takes so long? Because we thought as soon as the Tata Group took over, it will be immediate. But what are the kind of hurdles that you'll have faced?
Let's focus on the aircraft interiors because I think that's what people see. We negotiated and placed an order for new aircraft at that point. 470 new aircraft.
19 more exchanges in this transcript
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Wilson, C. (2026, June 23). Inside Air India's Transformation with CEO Campbell Wilson [Interview transcript]. Air India Official. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052367/
MLA
Campbell Wilson. "Inside Air India's Transformation with CEO Campbell Wilson." Air India Official, 23 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052367/.
BibTeX
@misc{wilson2026_1052367,
author = {Campbell Wilson},
title = {Inside Air India's Transformation with CEO Campbell Wilson},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Air India Official. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052367/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
