Going Places – industry appointment highlights for Mar-2022

The travel, tourism and aviation industries in the across the globe 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. CTC - Corporate Travel Community aims to keep you informed of these movements each month, with a full wrap of the key changes across regional markets, while also featuring key appointments announced for the month.

Here are the key executive changes for Mar-2022:

Asia Pacific

• Bonza confirmed COO and co-founder Peter McNally departed his role with the carrier in Feb-2022
• Fly Dhaka confirmed it appointed Anisul Islam Mahmud as MD and Mollah Fazle Akbar as CEO.
• Akasa Air confirmed it appointed Priya Mehra as general counsel and chief compliance officer.
• TATA Group appointed Natarajan Chandrasekaran as Air India chairman.
• IndiGo appointed Gaurav Negi as CFO.
• Jin Air appointed Byeong-ryul Park as CEO. Mr Park replaces Choi Jung-ho in the role.
• Nippon Cargo Airlines appointed Toshiaki Kobori as MD effective 01-Apr-2022, replacing Hiroyuki Homma.

Europe, Middle East & Africa

• Blue Panorama Airlines appointed Valentina Quagliata as chief restructuring officer.
• Pobeda appointed deputy director general Andrey Yurikov as acting director general, effective 05-Mar-2022.
• Aeroflot confirmed the appointment of Rossiya CEO Sergey Alexandrovsky as deputy director general.
• Flybe announced the following appointments to its new senior leadership team:
  • Philip Saunders as CCO;
  • John Jackson as chief operations and customer service officer;
  • Ron Karger as chief technical officer;
  • Jim Comer as director of finance.
• Ethiopian Airlines announced the early retirement of group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam for medical reasons.
• SAS announced its executive VP and CFO Magnus Ornberg will depart his role with the carrier in spring 2022.
• Ethiopian Airlines Group appointed Mesfin Tasew Bekele as CEO.
• Russia's Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev confirmed the resignation of Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarino.
• El Al announced CEO Avigal Soreq resigned from the position.
• Croatia Airlines announced the appointment of Jasmin Bajić as CEO for a five year term, effective 06-May-2022.
• SAS appointed Erno Hildén as executive vice president and CFO, succeeding Magnus Örnberg effective Apr-2022.

Americas

• Viva promoted Pablo Madriñán from director of strategy to chief commercial officer.
• FedEx announced FedEx Express president and CEO Donald F Colleran will retire, effective 31-Dec-2022. Mr Colleran will be succeeded by regional president of the Americas and EVP of global support Richard W Smith.
• Canada Jetlines appointed Percy Gyara as chief financial officer.
• FedEx announced president and COO Raj Subramaniam will be promoted to president and CEO, effective 01-Jun-2022, succeeding chairman and CEO Frederick W Smith, who will become executive chairman.