"Best Years Are Yet To Come," Says Air India CEO-Designate

Asserting that Air India's "best years are yet to come", CEO-designate Campbell Wilson on Monday said the journey to make it a world class airline will require efforts that are "big and small, easy and difficult".

Campbell, who will be at the helm as the CEO and MD after takeover of the airline by the Tata Group in January this year, visited the carrier's headquarters in New Delhi for the first time on Monday and held a meeting with top executives.

"Given the length and complexity of the road ahead, we must work hard to keep channels of communication open. Not just with our customers, but within and across teams, too.

"For my part, I will start by devoting much of the next few weeks to meeting with as many of you as I can, getting to know you, giving a chance for you to know me, and to listening to what you have to say," he said in a message to the employees.

Sources at the airline told PTI that Wilson visited its office and met top executives.

In his message, Wilson said he was looking forward to joining after all formalities have been completed.

"This morning I was proud to walk through the doors of Air India's New Delhi office for the first time. To be a part of this iconic airline, at this historic time in its journey, is a rare and exciting privilege," he said.

Stating that "Air India has always had a very special place in the hearts of travellers -- including mine, ever since I flew an Air India 747 for the first time way back in 1995", he said it is a long and storied legacy that has touched millions, and "to which many of you have contributed years of your working lives." "We should rightly celebrate this legacy and these contributions, but we must also have our gaze focussed squarely on the future," Wilson stated.

Noting that he is convinced that Air India's best years are yet to come, he said, "India's potential is vast in myriad areas and you know as well as I the long-term posture and performance culture of Tata Group. You know as well as I that, in any organisation, there are areas that can be improved upon."

He said that he fully subscribed to the ambition of making Air India a world class-airline, adding, "but the task itself now falls upon us to deliver."

"Much will be required to reach the heights to which we aspire, and the goal will not be attained overnight. The journey will require efforts big and small, easy and difficult. More than anything else it will require us to work together and be prepared, where necessary, to evolve," Wilson said in the letter.

"I want to understand your aspirations for our airline, your thoughts about what we do well, and your views on where we can do better. This will supplement the material already gathered in various workshops and help us set clear directions for this transformation -- at once the most exciting and challenging in world aviation today," he added.