Fluffy is right, there is a massive legacy to deal with here in terms of the last 3 CEO's. But hard times he took the job so now its his baby. It was actually the first joker who cleared out all the competent management- when the American got there he filled the gaps with Bain guys- then he left and the next chap was forced to use the window dressers. So what has Khaya got left- most of the window dressers have been shown their limitations and have been forced to move on, for the last year or so most of the promotions have been given to people who are functionally competent in their job- the very top jobs will always be political appointees but that’s life in the parastatal environment……then again they also seem to be able to arrange some fairly big cheques from Trevor so they have their uses!
The cost cutting drive (on the BIG issues) is in full swing and is yielding positive results- that will save the company money on a day to day basis going forward- the cell phone thing is just scratching the surface and is a bit of a sideshow from the core stuff. Right now there are several project teams working on the implementation of our new strategy- these teams are made up of full time managers as well as consultants in specialist areas where a lack of competency has been defined. These consultants have been chosen for their implementation track record with some very big carriers globally who have been in a similar position to us.
On Chicago, United are trying to bully us into a corner with their other ally in STAR, the meeting on the code share discussions have been less than cordial and we have called their bluff-if we don’t get what we believe is fair we walk away, which ,given the arrogance shown by them to date, is exactly what we will do. Fortunately we have a few other options as this situation has been brewing for the last few months and discussions have been held with 2 other carriers in the region. The net effect of this would be to push or opening of the 3rd US gateway back by 3 months- obviously this would not be Chicago