As the fifth anniversary of the purchase of Air India by the Tatas — they bought the airline from the government in October 2021 — approaches, the airline’s turnaround has turned into a theatre of the absurd.

CEO Campbell Wilson is set to exit in September, and Air India’s announcement earlier this month of plans to set up an interim panel to run it sparked a joke in civil aviation circles: Why not set up a CoS — committee of (former civil aviation) secretaries — to run the airline?

Some industry representatives find the idea of a panel quite unfathomable. The absurdity of the leadership vacuum was made stark by a press release issued on April 7 that announced Wilson’s resignation; it added that Wilson conveyed his decision to exit the airline as far back as 2024 but had agreed to stay until the airline found an appropriate replacement.

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This startling piece of information raises two critical questions. First, why does the airline find itself flat-footed and without a CEO in July........

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