Americas appointment highlights of the month – May 2019

The travel, tourism and aviation industries in the Americas region witness policy and upper level changes on a daily basis. It is important to not only keep tabs of these organisations direction, but to also monitor changes in executive branches to see the wider picture of the travel market. The Blue Swan Daily will keep you informed of these movements each month, with a full wrap of the key changes in the Americas market, while also looking forward to key appointments announced for the last month.

Here are the key executive changes for May 2019:

• Greater Toronto Airports Authority's board appointed Douglas Allingham as chair, effective 07-May-2019;
• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport appointed Jacqueline Yaft as executive director of aviation, effective 10-Jun-2019;
• Durham Tees Valley Airport reported the following appointments to its management and oversight team:
  • Phil Forster as head of airport development;
  • David Soley as non executive chairman.
• Tulsa International Airport announced the appointment of Chuck Hannum as COO on 15-May-2019;
• Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport announced the Birmingham Airport Authority appointed Ronald F Mathieu as CEO, effective 17-Jun-2019;
• Wingo GM Catalina Breton resigned effective 30-May-2019, to take an executive role in an international technology company;
• ExpressJet Airlines appointed Jonyt Meyer as VP and chief information officer (CIO) on 24-May-2019;
• IATA announced Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr assumed his duties as chairman of the IATA board of governors (BoG) for a one year term, effective from the conclusion of the 75th IATA AGM;
• SkyTeam appointed Korean Air chairman and CEO Walter Cho as chairman of the alliance;
• Volaris received an AOC in El Salvador for a new subsidiary named Vuela El Salvador, operating as Volaris El Salvador. The start up's leadership team is as follows:
  • Volaris El Salvador GM Mauricio Alfaro;
  • Volaris El Salvador COO Jose Antonio Martinez.
• UPS appointed Charlene Thomas as chief human resources officer and a member of the company's management committee, effective 01-Jul-2019;
• Alaska Airlines promoted Andrea Schneider as SVP of people on 05-Jun-2019. Additionally, Horizon Air promoted Matt Prainito as VP of station and inflight operations;
• Vancouver Airport Authority appointed Kevin Howlett as director at large. Prior to this appointment, Mr Howlett served as SVP regional markets & government relations and SVP of employee relations for Air Canada;
• Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) announced the retirement of LAWA COO Samson Mengistu. Mr Mengistu will remain in his current role through the first part of summer 2019 and will assist the organisational transition through the beginning of 2020.