Taca CEO resigns

[latinaviation]

Aviation Daily reported in this morning's edition that Grupo Taca CEO Federico Bloch will resign from the airline and board after taking a leave of absence since March due to the illness of his son. Bloch has been with Taca since 1979 and grew the airline from a three-plane operation to a pan-regional carrier. Roberto Kriete, Taca's chairman, will take over the CEO position, as well.

[Panama Jack]

Wow, thanks for posting that. Federico Bloch has been synonomous with TACA. It will be interesting on what happens next.

[latinaviation]

Yeah, he is an institution at Taca and a very smart guy. I met him a few times and was always impressed. The fact that he got his MBA from Harvard back in '79 - way before MBAs were the "thing" - says a lot. Very visionary guy, I am sure his talent will be missed at Taca, but no doubt we'll see him again sometime. He's smart, young and ambitious.

[Panama Jack]

Have you met Roberto Kreite? What kind of man is he? Can we expect to see changes from TACA or basically staying the course?

[latinaviation]

Never met him, Jack. But here's my take. The Kriete family has owned much of Taca, even before they brought Bloch onboard. Roberto must have greenlighted much, if not all, of Bloch's plans for Taca. So, he's got to be a smart guy and onboard with Taca's direction or he (Bloch) would have never gotten where he is. And this wasn't a forced outting over politics, Bloch left at will. Hopefully, Kriete will stay the course and keep Taca focused in these turbulent times.