Sunday, June 09, 2013

Jet CEO Kardassis quits: Etihad gets down to business in India?

Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan seems to have got down to serious business with Jet Airways, his airline's latest strategic partner. Evidence: the resignation of Jet CEO Nikos Kardassis.
Jet's Chief Operating Officer Capt. Hameed Ali has been named interim CEO. But there are already reports that Hogan may bring in Qantas Airways CEO Gary Toomey to succeed Kardassis.
That the Jet would undergo an overhaul at both the board and the management level had been expected ever since Etihad signed a deal with Jet in April agreeing to pick up 24 per cent equity stake in Jet, India's second largest domestic carrier by market share. Etihad has committed itself to sinking in close to a billion dollars in the debt-ridden Indian carrier. And its record has been that wherever it picked up a minority stake, such as in Air Seychelles or Air Berlin, Etihad has brought about a management revamp. It appointed a new board at Air Seychelles, and replaced Air Berlin's CEO Hartmut Mehdorn with Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, who also happens to have been Kardassis's predecessor at Jet.
08/06/13 K.R. Balasubramanyam/Business Today
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