Gunship
10th Nov 2005, 05:13
SOUTH African Airways (SAA) said yesterday that it had frozen the position of the chief operations officer left vacant when Kyrl Acton resigned last month.
SAA created the chief operations position specifically for a highly experienced aviation executive who would help steer the company to sustainable profitability. Acton was with the company for only six months when he resigned for reasons that remain unknown.
With many of SAA’s current executives lacking aviation experience, the chief operations position is seen as the engine room for SAA’s re-engineering process.
SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula said yesterday that the airline had enough talent internally to carry on without the chief operations officer.
“We have stability and knowledge within the organisation to tap into the resources we have, and that’s what we have done.”
Ngqula named Collin Jordan GM for flight operations.
Jordan, a pilot and former chief negotiator for the SAA Pilots Association, has been in the aviation industry for 27 years.
Jan Blake, vice-president for technical operations, was appointed acting CEO of SAA Technical, SAA’s aircraft maintenance division.
Other new appointees are GM for sales and marketing Molebatsi Moagi; GM for cargo Patrick Dlamini; and Viwe Mlenzana, who replaces Nolwazi Qata as GM for human resources.
Ngqula said Qata was fired last week for “malicious misrepresentation of the SAA board”. Qata made statements to unions during a five-day strike by cabin crew in April that did not reflect the board’s true decisions, in an effort to bring a quick end to the industrial action.
The new appointees will report directly to the CEO, and not to the chief operations officer as before.
Ngqula said he was confident the management team would realise the turnaround strategy that was helping the airline recover from an R8,6bn loss in 2003. Last year it made a net profit of R966m.
The BusinessMap think-tank said it was difficult to predict if SAA would sustain its profitability without a chief operations officer.
Ngqula was a highly experienced manager, however, and had improved the company before Acton’s appointment, BusinessMap director Reg Rumney said.
“He, like any other CEO, will be measured by the financial performance of the company and they seem to have turned the corner,” Rumney said.
Link (http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A111140)
SAA created the chief operations position specifically for a highly experienced aviation executive who would help steer the company to sustainable profitability. Acton was with the company for only six months when he resigned for reasons that remain unknown.
With many of SAA’s current executives lacking aviation experience, the chief operations position is seen as the engine room for SAA’s re-engineering process.
SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula said yesterday that the airline had enough talent internally to carry on without the chief operations officer.
“We have stability and knowledge within the organisation to tap into the resources we have, and that’s what we have done.”
Ngqula named Collin Jordan GM for flight operations.
Jordan, a pilot and former chief negotiator for the SAA Pilots Association, has been in the aviation industry for 27 years.
Jan Blake, vice-president for technical operations, was appointed acting CEO of SAA Technical, SAA’s aircraft maintenance division.
Other new appointees are GM for sales and marketing Molebatsi Moagi; GM for cargo Patrick Dlamini; and Viwe Mlenzana, who replaces Nolwazi Qata as GM for human resources.
Ngqula said Qata was fired last week for “malicious misrepresentation of the SAA board”. Qata made statements to unions during a five-day strike by cabin crew in April that did not reflect the board’s true decisions, in an effort to bring a quick end to the industrial action.
The new appointees will report directly to the CEO, and not to the chief operations officer as before.
Ngqula said he was confident the management team would realise the turnaround strategy that was helping the airline recover from an R8,6bn loss in 2003. Last year it made a net profit of R966m.
The BusinessMap think-tank said it was difficult to predict if SAA would sustain its profitability without a chief operations officer.
Ngqula was a highly experienced manager, however, and had improved the company before Acton’s appointment, BusinessMap director Reg Rumney said.
“He, like any other CEO, will be measured by the financial performance of the company and they seem to have turned the corner,” Rumney said.
Link (http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A111140)