And this year's congress will be even bigger
Meet our speakers
Chief Executive Officer,
Air Arabia
Adel Ali is CEO of Air Arabia and has over 25 years of experience in senior aviation, tourism, marketing and operational positions in the Middle East, Africa and United Kingdom. Named as the Middle East airline expert and has been recognized by number of awards for his contribution to the development of air transport and tourism in various countries in Middle East and Africa. He is acknowledged as the person behind creating the first low cost airline in the Middle East from conception to launch in a record time of six months. Air Arabia is recognized as a leader in the Middle East aviation industry. Prior to Air Arabia Adel was vice president commercial and customer services for Gulf Air, he reengineered the business processes and implemented management restructuring to put the company on the road to recovery. Adel spent major part of his career in senior management positions with British Airways in various parts of the world including General Manager Middle East and Africa. He also served as a director for various companies such including British Airways Visitor Services, Bahrain Airport Service, Bahrain Hotel Company, on social front he service as a chairman of number of social and charity organizations.
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Vice President Airline Marketing & Aeronautical Revenue,
Abu Dhabi Airports Company
Mohammed Al Bulooki is the Vice President of Airline Marketing and Aeronautical Revenue at Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC). In his current role, Mohammed oversees aviation business development strategies for the airports of the Capital of the UAE. His responsibilities include overseeing all existing and potential airline route development as well as developing sustainable and profitable strategies to optimize aeronautical revenue streams.
Mohammed joined ADAC in 2008 as Director of Marketing & Communications having previously worked for Etihad Airways as Corporate Planning & Strategy Manager.
Before joining Etihad, Mohammed worked at Royal Jet as Sales Manager.
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General Manager,
AnadoluJet
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Chief Executive Officer,
GoAir
Co-founder and Member of the Executive Committee of the European Low Fares Airline Association – ELFAA – from 2003, Edgardo Badiali brings more than two decades of senior level European and Asian commercial aviation experience to Myair.com. In 2002 he joined Volare Group where he served as Commercial Director until June 2004. During his years at Volare, Mr Badiali was also the executive reference officer for the Volareweb.com project. From 1998 to 2000 he worked at Jet Airways – an Indian based airline – as Executive Vice-President having, in addition, overall responsibility for the In-flight and Catering Services. In the previous years, from 1995 to 1998, he covered the same position at Swiss Air having also overall responsibility for strategic partnerships. In this period he successfully led the partnership agreement between Air Europe and Swiss Air. He also covered the positions of E-Commerce Reference Manager, New Distribution Technologies Reference Manager, Vice-General Manager of the In-flight Service Department and a range of diverse roles within the In-flight Services and the Human Resources Departments.
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After working for Regional Airlines where he was part of the company’s start up team, Karim took the post of Commercial, Marketing & Ground Operations Director for Jet4you. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors (Président du Directoire).
Karim has also been President of the BARM (Board of Airlines Representative Morocco) for 3 consecutive years and is part of the Executive Committee working on the national tourism strategy.
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Director Airline Business Group,
Hahn Air
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CEO Virgin Asia Pacific and Head of Aviation,
Virgin
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Chief Executive Officer,
Thai AirAsia
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Chief Executive Officer,
Sky Europe Airlines
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Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,
Jazeera Airways
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Director General,
Aerosvit
Mr Kostadin Botev, Director General, AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines
Born in Lovech (Bulgaria) in 1948. Graduated from Sofia Electrotechnical University in 1971, Ph.D.
1971 - 1998 worked for Balkan Bulgarian Airlines as engineer, Head of department, Deputy Technical Director, Technical Director, Director General, General Representative of Balkan Airlines in US (New-York).
1996 – 1998 Head of "Balkantourist" (in US).
1998 – 2002 SH&E, Aviation Consulting Firm.
2002 – 2006 Regional Sales Director in North America, AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines.
2006 – 2007 Director of General Representative in North America, AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines.
2007 – 2008 First Deputy Director General – Executive Director, AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines.
Since 2008 Director General, AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines.
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Head of Distribution ,
Condor Flugdienst
Jens Boyd joined Condor in 2007 to help grow the single seat business of this hybrid leisure carrier. He now heads the revenue management, distribution and international sales/alliances teams.
Prior to Condor, Jens worked for international consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he led key initiatives for airport and airline clients throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia for several years.
Jens earned a Ph.D. degree in strategic management from the Free University of Berlin in 2003 and continues to publish research articles.
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Chief Executive Officer,
PT. Mandala Airlines
• Business Development Director,Auravita/HSBC 2000 – 2002. Managed Business Development and the Commercial Operations (including P&L responsibility) together with HSBC Global Payments & Cash Management and HSBC Invoice Finance provided Business-to-Business receivables management utilizing leading -edge web based technology.
• Managing Director, Toni Polska, Warsaw, Poland, 1997 – 2000. Successfully set up and managed a multi million dollar operation in Poland to produce, distribute, sell and market a range of dairy food products. The project was a joint venture with Swiss Dairy Food using the “Toni” brand (no 2 to Coca Cola in Switzerland).
TUI/ Britannia Airways 1987 – 1996
• Pilot on Boeing 737, 757 and 767 - Gained 9 years of airline experience and expertise with Britannia Airways, including substantial operations and strategic experience.
• Successfully completed an MBA specializing Airline Operations & Management
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General Director,
Sky Express
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Director of Marketing,
Volaris
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Mr Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director, Air Transport,
DG Energy and Transport, European Commission
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Commercial Director,
BMI Baby
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Mr Ole Wieth Christensen, Head of Route Development,
Copenhagen Airport
Ole Wieth Christensen is head of the Route Development Department at Copenhagen Airports A/S (CPH).
CPH markets itself as Scandinavia’s Hub since the airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia and Baltic Europe. Developing the low cost traffic in CPH – while still developing the more traditional hub-and-spoke network – is one of the challenges Ole and his team are faced with.
Prior to joining CPH four years ago, Ole Wieth Christensen worked in the medical business as Key Account Manager, with the responsibility for sales and marketing in Denmark.
He holds a MBA in International Management from Monterey Institute of International Studies in California (2001) and a M.Sc. in International Business from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark (2002) where he wrote his Master Thesis on the Low Cost Threat facing SAS on the Scandinavian Capital Triangle.
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Mr Alessandro Ciancimino, Regional Vice President Europe ,
SABRE ITALIA SRL
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Prior to joining Fly.com, Brian spent fourteen years in airlines and aviation. Most recently, as Vice President – Planning for Virgin America, a startup U.S. airline launched in 2007, he was a key member of the senior launch team that guided the airline from concept to launch, acquiring over $175 million in private investment. At Virgin, he ran their commercial planning division, leading the design and implementation of Virgin’s route network, revenue management, distribution, sales, and loyalty program. Prior to Virgin America, he spent nine years at US Airways in various planning roles, ending his tenure as Managing Director-Network Planning.
Brian earned a Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in economics and history, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He is a licensed private pilot, and resides with his wife and three children outside San Francisco, California.
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Corporate Affairs Director,
Aer Lingus
Enda Corneille was appointed Corporate Affairs Director in November 2007, with responsibility for internal and external communications including media relations, corporate and Government affairs together with all aspects of Aer Lingus customer service. He also has responsibility for communications within the Group’s Investor Relations. Mr Corneille formally held the position of Commercial Director with responsibility for all aspects of commercial operations, developing the airline’s sales and marketing capabilities with an emphasis on the continued development of the airline’s website aerlingus.com
Enda has over 20 years experience with Aer Lingus joining the airline in 1986. He has held a number of positions including Head of European Sales, where he managed the commercial sales elements within Europe and the UK.
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Chief Executive Officer,
Clickair
Alex Cruz, CEO, clickair
Alex Cruz was Accenture's partner leading Europe's aviation practice where he participated in the creation and start-up of clickair, Europe's fastest growing airline. In September 2006, he
became CEO of the airline – at clickair, he has managed an incredible growth cycle, including a successful transition from 0 to 24 A320s, 720 employees, and 58 domestic and Europe-wide
international routes in just over one year. clickair is the lowest cost operating airline flying to main airports in Europe.
Alex has more than 18 years of experience in the airline industry. He initially held several roles with American Airlines in Dallas, and later, with travel distribution and technology group, Sabre, in London. As a consultant, he has led projects with many airlines around the world, from British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific, to Qantas, jetBlue and Delta Air Lines, as well as for other travel companies like lastminute.com, BAA, Swissport
or Amadeus. Alex, 42, is originally from Bilbao, Spain. He graduated as an industrial engineer from Central Michigan University. Later, he obtained a Masters of Science degree from The Ohio State University, specializing in e-business applications for small/medium size enterprises (1990). He also completed business administration and management courses at the Edwin Cox School of Business in Dallas. He is married and has 4 children.
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President & Chief Executive Officer,
Tiger Airways
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Chief Executive Officer,
LAN Express
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Director of Revenue and Pricing,
WestJet
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UK General Manager,
Cheapflights
Francesca joined Cheapflights.co.uk, UK’s leading price comparison website, in August 2007 as General Manager. Previously she worked for STA Travel, the world’s largest student travel organisation, as a Managing Director of its international division in November 2001. Up to that time Francesca built and ran ifyoutravel.com, Europe's leading online speciality travel company, for two years. She sold her dot com business to OTC in October 2001, now owned by Lastminute.com.
Francesca holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International Political Science from Geneva University. In between two degrees, she worked for four years at McKinsey & Company, Management Consultants, three of which were spent in Lisbon and one year in London.
On leaving Harvard Francesca joined PepsiCo's UK base in Reading as Assistant Marketing Manager on the Walker's Crisp brand (#1 Food brand in the UK). It was from PepsiCo that she moved into the travel industry with Thomas Cook as Head of Thomas Cook Promotions for two years and with Going Places as Commercial & Marketing Director for four years. Francesca gained a different business perspective from the travel industry for a short time when she held the post of International Marketing Director for Thorn EMI in between Thomas Cook and Going Places.
Personal interests include Yoga , golf, trekking, skiing, international affairs & opera. Francesca is a certified Yoga teacher.
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Chief Commercial Officer,
OnAir
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Mr Zouhair Mohamed El Aoufir, CEO,
Atlas Blue
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Head of Airline Distribution and Passenger Logistics,
TUI Aviation
Consultant for the Statistical Office of the European Communities
in Luxembourg
1981 – 1987 Lufthansa German Airlines in the following positions
- Leading Organizer Yield Management, IT Organization
- Manager Schedule and Availability Distribution
- General Manager Distribution Systems and Hotel and Tour Service
1987 – 1990 Senior Vice President AMADEUS Global Distribution Systems
General Manager of AMADEUS Marketing
1990 – 1993 General Manager Customer Systems for German National Railways
1993 – 2000 General Manager Marketing and Distribution of LTU International Airlines, Managing Director Sales and Marketing
2000 - 2003 Consultant (worked for TUI, Hapag- Lloyd, LTU, Hotels (Villa Hotels Male), Government of the Maldives (Project Study for a National Carrier), Hapag-Lloyd: Implementation of Open Skies as Hapag-Lloyd’s new Reservation System.
2003 - 2004 Manager Strategic Projects TUI Germany
2004 - 2006 General Manager Marketing and Distribution Hapag-Lloyd Airline (34 aircraft, 7 Mio passengers)
Re-Positioning of Hapag-Lloyd Flug as Hapagfly.com and as Low Cost Leisure Airline, New CI and Marketing Appearance
Introduction of a new Pricing Procedures (“Guerrilla” Pricing), Creation of the Web based Customer Loyalty Program Blue Miles (1-1-Pricing)
2006 – Ongoing General Manager Distribution and Logistics Competence Centre for all TUI Airlines:
TUIfly, Jetairfly, Thomsonfly, Corsairfly, TUIfly Nordic, Jet4You (Morocco), Arkefly
Member of Navitaire’s Reservation Customer Advisory Board
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Chief Executive Officer,
AirAsia
Founder of Tune Air Sdn Bhd, Tony together with his partners took over AirAsia Sdn Bhd, Malaysia’s second national carrier and successfully relaunched AirAsia into a low fare carrier in December 2001. Tony is currently a Director and also the Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia, Asia’s first low cost carrier. Under his leadership AirAsia has grown from a modest fleet of 2 to 16 currently. The airline has recorded an unbroken profit for the last 2 years since the first day of operation and has carried over 4 million passengers to date.
Tony was educated in the United Kingdom in Finance. Upon graduation in 1987 Tony joined Virgin Group before moving on to Warner Music International London in 1989. In 1992 Tony was transferred to Malaysia to head Warner Music Malaysia where he continued to have 12 illustrious years with Warner with his last position as Vice President Asean. Tony was also actively involved in the development of the Malaysian Music Industry where in recognition of his work he was awarded the title Setia Mahkota Selangor by His Royal Highness King of Malaysia Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in 1999.
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Mr Jose Luis Garza Alvarez, CEO,
Interjet
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Vice President, Information Technology,
Eurowings
Marcus Gerke is Vice President Information Technology of Germanwings and Eurowings since 2003. Previously he was responsible for the operative Applications of both Airlines such as Flight Operations, Reservation Systems and Backend Systems.
Before he joined Eurowings, Marcus was Product Manager for Logistics Services with Schenker, a globally acting german logistics service provider.
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Managing Director,
Plane Advice
Sudeep Ghai has been working in the airline industry for 15 years and is the Managing Director of Plane Advice, an aviation consultancy made up of former airline executives from low cost and full service airlines with over 300 years of line experience between twenty consultants. He is also the former Chief Commercial Officer of Sama, Saudi Arabia – a low cost airline which has won awards for branding and distribution innovation and is one of the co-founders of Virgin Nigeria. He has therefore built several ancillary revenue businesses with partners and negotiated relationships first hand. Sudeep has also previously worked as a senior strategy executive at British Airways and was an alliance Director at Trans World Airlines (TWA).
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President,
Indigo Airlines
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Chief Executive Officer,
Virgin Blue
Brett Godfrey is the Chief Executive and co-founder of publicly listed Virgin Blue Airlines Limited which comprises Australian domestic carrier Virgin Blue, international airline Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue, a joint venture airline with the Government of Samoa. Together the airlines operate over 325 flights daily to 22 Australian and eight international destinations.
Mr Godfrey is also a Director of the Board of WestJet, Canada's leading low-fare airline offering scheduled service to 33 cities in North America.
Prior to conceptualising and launching Virgin Blue Airlines in August 2000, Mr Godfrey had a 12 year career in aviation and finance which included appointments as Chief Financial Officer of Belgium based Virgin Express; Finance Manager of Virgin Atlantic based in London and Group Financial Controller of Sherrard/National Jet, in Melbourne. He started his career as a Chartered Accountant with accountancy firm Touche Ross.
Mr. Godfrey holds a business degree from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia and is an award winning leader recognised internationally for services to aviation, customer service, tourism and business.
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First Deputy General Director, Commercial Director,
KD Avia
Головин Виталий Александрович, первый заместитель генерального директора по коммерческой работе ОАО «КД авиа»
Образование:
Дипломатическая академия;
Высшая коммерческая школа «Авиабизнес».
Дополнительное образование:
Курс «Управление инвенторными системами продажи авиаперевозок», SITA (Международная организация авиационных телекоммуникаций), сертификат 1997 г., США, Атланта.
Курс «Автоматизированные системы управления доходами», SITA (Международная организация авиационных телекоммуникаций), сертификат 1998 г., США, Атланта.
Трудовая деятельность:
С 2003 - ОАО «Туральянс – Холдинг», заместитель генерального директора холдинга.
2001 – 2003 ООО «Юридическая Авиационная Служба», заместитель генерального директора 2000 - ОАО «Авиакомпания «Внуковские авиалинии», заместитель коммерческого директора.
1994 –2000 ОАО «Аэрофлот – Российские международные авиалинии», заместитель директора Центра управления коммерческой загрузкой пассажирских рейсов.
1992 –1994 представитель Аэрофлота за рубежом, Алжир.
Дополнительные сведения:
В 2001-2002 гг. руководил разработкой и внедрением инвестиционных проектов «Построение авиационного транспортного узла» в г. Красноярске на базе ОАО «Авиакомпания «Красноярские авиалинии» и в г. Самаре на базе ОАО «Авиакомпания «Самара».
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Chief Commercial Officer ,
Jazeera Airways
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Managing Director,
Brussels Airlines
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Mr. Stelios Haji-Ioannou , Chairman,
easyGroup
Stelios is credited as the pioneer who changed the European aviation, transport and hospitality scene for the benefit of millions of consumers. He will address a key presentation on how to unearth the right opportunities in the budget and mid market hotel sector.
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Chief Technology Officer,
Cartrawler
Healy’s field of expertise is in architecting and implementing effective distribution strategies that offer CarTrawler’s customers rapid, effective solutions for direct consumer bookings. Bobby has an impressive track record in creating booking engine and middleware solutions for the world’s top airlines, airline alliances and mega travel agencies including Star Alliance, Hotwire.com, United Airlines, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, Mexicana, American Express, Sabre and Rosenbluth International. Healy recently sold the company he founded, Eland Technologies (http://www.elandtech.com), to industry giant SITA (http://www.sita.aero). The solutions he designed and built are now in use by 80% of the world’s top 20 airlines. His move to CarTrawler was a continuation of his mission to reduce distribution costs in the industry, whilst maintaining high margins for the largest travel companies in the world
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Vice President , Product Programs & Services ,
Travelport
Paul Hesser is Vice President of Product Programmes and Services at Travelport and is based in Chicago, Illinois. Paul is presently responsible for the strategy and deployment of Travelport’s strategic product initiatives, which include the merchandising of travel suppliers’ products and services including airline ancillary products. Paul joined Travelport in 2008 from G2 SwitchWorks, where he was Vice President of Technology Services with responsibility for product management, airline and agency implementations and customer service.
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CEO,
Air Transport Business Development, Inc.
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Chief Executive Officer,
Norwegian Air Shuttle
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Chief Financial Officer,
FLYBE
Andrew joined Flybe in 2005 from ROK plc prior to which he had a 24-year career with KPMG, latterly as a partner. At Flybe, Andrew played a key role in the successful completion of Flybe’s acquisition of BA Connect in March 2007, and was appointed to the Group Board as Chief Financial Officer in April 2007. As CFO, Andrew is responsible for all aspects of Flybe’s company finances, relationships with financiers, management and financial reporting, and company secretarial matters.
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Head of Networking & Revenue Management,
LOT Polish Airlines
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Born in 1959, Mr. Kotil graduated from Aeronautical Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in 1983. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1991. After founding and managing the Aviation and Advanced Composite Laboratories of ITU, he also served as chair and associate dean of Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering.
He served as the Head of Research Planning and Coordination Department in Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul.
Going to US for a second time in 2001, he served as guest professor in the University of Illinois, followed by a position of Research Engineer in Advanced Innovative Technologies Inc, in Troy, New York, between 2002 and 2003.
Dr. Kotil started his career with Turkish Airlines in 2003, as the Deputy General Manager in Turkish Technic, Inc. He became the CEO of Turkish Airlines in 2005. Dr. Kotil has served on the Board of Governors of IATA since 2006.
Mr. Kotil, married with 4 children, has many articles and publications in the aeronautical science journals, and papers in seminars and conferences.
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Manager Revenue Accounting,
Transavia
Wim Kruit was appointed in his current position in february 2007. Before he joined transavia.com he worked for KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Cargo division as Cluster Manager Accounts Payable and General Ledger for four years and before that position he was teamleader Desktop Service Desk at Shell Information Technology International for three years. Wim holds a bachelor degree in Information Technology (University of Economical Studies in Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and is 35 years old.
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John Leahy was appointed Chief Operating Officer - Customers in July 2005, continuing his responsibilities as Chief Commercial Officer of Airbus, a role he held since August 1994. His responsibilities cover all commercial activities including sales, marketing, contracts, business transaction control, asset management, leasing, and business development. Mr. Leahy is a member of the Airbus Executive Committee
One of Mr. Leahy’s the greatest achievements was to raise Airbus’ market share from 18% in 1995 to 50% in 1999, where it has been maintained to this day. Mr. Leahy also led the commercial activities that resulted in the successful launch of Airbus’ next generation flagship aircraft which set the standards for large aircraft in the 21st century, the A380 and the A350 XWB.
Mr. Leahy worked for seven years in marketing at Piper Aircraft before joining Airbus North America in January 1985. He became head of sales in 1988 and then became President of Airbus North America, where his responsibilities included sales and marketing, as well as sales finance and contracts activities for the important American and Canadian markets. Mr. Leahy was responsible for the penetration of the strategic North American market, where most major US airlines are now Airbus customers.
Mr. Leahy has an MBA from Syracuse University with concentration in both Finance and Transportation Management and a BA from Fordham University with a dual major in Communications and Philosophy. He is also a licensed multi-engine commercial pilot and a former flight instructor with more than 3,700 hours of flying time.
He was born in New York in August 1950 and is married with three children. His hobbies include, in addition to selling aircraft, sailing and scuba diving.
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Director of Marketing ,
FlyBE
Simon has been on a fast track within the airline industry since he joined the industry in 1995. Simon spent 5 years at British Airways holding a number of commercial positions within the airline in the UK and overseas, before moving to Flybe.
In his current role as Director of Marketing, Simon launched the Flybe.com brand and has since been instrumental in the development of the airline to become the UK’s 3rd largest low cost airline brand, transforming the financial performance of the airline as a result. Simon is also responsible for Flybe’s ancillary revenues which has now become industry leading, and managed a world first with the introduction of baggage charging in 2006.
The recent acquisition of BA Connect and more recent extension of the brand with the world’s first low cost airline franchise agreement, means Simon will be responsible for the Marketing, Product Development and Ancillary Revenues for Europe’s largest regional low cost airline carrying up to 8m passengers a year across 160 routes.
Simon is married with two young boys, which enable him to relive his footballing youth, but prevent him from spending enough time on the golf course.
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Chief Marketing Officer,
Vueling
Chief Commercial Officer of Vueling Airlines has 10 year experience at the executive level as a marketing & sales specialist with experience in general management. At Vueling he is in charge of Offline and Online Marketing, Revenue Management, Route Planning and Development, Sales and Customer Service. He began his professional career in Port Aventura, theme park resort in Spain as Deputy Marketing and Sales Director, later became Marketing and Sales director in Europe for AMC Entertainment Europe, one of the world’s largest cinema exhibitors, and finally worked for Cirsa Business Corporation, global leader in leisure & gaming, as Global Marketing Director.
Mr Martí graduated in 1993 at Saint-Louis University (USA) in Business Administration and Communication “Cum Laude” and in 2005 at IESE Business School, of the University of Navarra, with a Masters in Business Administration.
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Executive Vice President, Europe,
Travelzoo
Chris Loughlin joined Travelzoo (NASDAQ: TZOO) in November 2001 and is currently the Executive Vice President, Europe. Chris joined Travelzoo as Vice President of Marketing where he oversaw Marketing activities in the United States before moving into a new role as Vice President of Business Development. In this role he developed new products and revenue streams with airlines, hotels and tour companies in the United States. In 2005, he was responsible for launching Travelzoo in the UK, Germany, France and Spain.
Today Travelzoo has 15 million weekly subscribers, with 2.3 million in Europe. Prior to joining Travelzoo, Chris was co-founder of Weekends.com, an Internet travel Web site. Chris began his career with Marks and Spencer Plc.
and has an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York City. He speaks regularly at Internet and Travel Industry conferences and has appeared on TV networks such as CNBC Europe, NBC, The Travel Channel and ABC as an Internet travel expert. Chris is on the European Advisory Board of the CMO Council.
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Vice President, Scheduled Services,
Southwest Airlines
- Born August 30, 1953 Newry, County Down, Ireland
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- Grew up in NYC and Yonkers, NY
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- Graduated from Purdue University, West Lafayette IN. May 1975 B.S. Management
- Worked as a Supervisor in a cheese packaging plant for a year after college 1975-76
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- Worked for Northwest Orient Airlines for almost 4 years 1976-1980, as a Ramper, Ticket Agent, Station Service Manager, Reservations Control Analyst and in Baggage Service, Station Staffing
- Worked for AirCal and PSA 1980-1982, as a Manager in Revenue Management and Market Planning
- With Southwest Airlines for 24 years 1983 to Present, as Schedule Planner, Director of Schedule Planning, and Vice President Schedule Planning.
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Managing Director ,
Air India
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Chief Information Officer,
Monarch Airlines
Richard Mintern – Group Chief Information Officer
Richard has many years of experience in the travel and aviation industries, having previously held positions at Britannia Airways and British Aerospace before joining Monarch, holding various positions within both engineering and operations. Since 1998 Richard has been responsible for all aspects of information technology and communications, including joint responsibility for developing e-commerce opportunities through monarch.co.uk. In 2006 Richard became Group Chief Information Officer responsible for all aspects of information technology across the Group including Monarch Airlines, Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, First Aviation, Cosmos, Avro, Cosmos Tourama and Archers Direct.
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Dale Moss is managing director of OpenSkies. He has worked in the aviation industry for 30 years, most recently as chief operating officer at Jet Airways, based in India.
Prior to Jet Airways, Dale held various leadership positions in the UK and US for British Airways, where he spent the majority of his career. Most recently at British Airways he was the Director of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for the passenger and cargo businesses.
From 1989 to 1993, Dale worked in senior sales positions at Rosenbluth International and QVC Home Shopping Network.
Originally from New York City, Dale earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Fordham University.
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Senior Vice President Strategy,
Air Berlin
Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline and a leading LCC in Europe, named Nagel Senior Vice President Strategy in January 2007. In this role, he is responsible for developing and implementing an overarching corporate strategy to secure the long-term success of the airline group comprising Air Berlin, former dba and LTU. He has 20 years of experience in the airline industry with a focus on network management. Nagel joined Air Berlin from Star Alliance where he was Director network planning, revenue management and fleet coordination. Prior to this he was senior manager network planning North Atlantic at Lufthansa German Airlines.
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Chief Executive Officer,
Kulula
GIDON NOVICK completed a B.Com and CA degree in South Africa his pilot’s license in 1995, and an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, USA.
After which he joined Comair in 1998, and headed up South Africa’s first low fare airline, kulula’.com which took to the skies on the 1 August 2001.
Since 1998, Gidon has held various positions in Comair ranging from Business Development Manager, National Marketing Manager, Commercial Director – kulula’.com, Executive Director – Comair and then appointed joint CEO on the 1 July 2006.
Comair has been a franchised partner with British Airways since 1996, kulula’.com is also owned and managed by Comair.
Gidon is married to Lindie and they have three children, one son and two daughters.
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Chief Executive Officer,
Air Asia X
In July 2007, Azran was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X, a new airline based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, focused on providing long-haul low-cost services. AirAsia X flies to Gold Coast and Perth, Australia and Hangzhou (Shanghai), China. AirAsia X is an associate of AirAsia Berhad, the leading short-haul low-lost carrier in Southeast Asia, carrying 18 million passengers annually across a network of over 80 routes.
Prior to his appointment, Azran was formerly the Senior Director of Business Development of Astro All Asia Networks plc, a leading Asian digital satellite television and radio broadcaster, where he led the start-up and operational launch of Astro’s international investments and joint ventures across Southeast Asia, India and Greater China – having oversight management responsibility for a portfolio of over US$300 million invested in these businesses.
Azran was formerly an Associate Partner of McKinsey & Company, an international management consultancy, where he co-led its Asia Pacific Corporate Finance & Strategy practice.
He holds a Masters degree in Management Science and a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, both from Stanford University. He is a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player.
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An accomplished, results-driven Executive with around 12 years of demonstrated success directing business and technology operations to optimize bottom line productivity expertise includes strategic planning, infrastructure, quality assurance, and business process improvement
Have been associated with Galileo Emirates, Galileo International, Saudi Arabian Airlines AL-Tayyar, Gold Medal Travels, Thomas Cook India InterGlobe Technologies, Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, Cushman & Wakefield, StayXS, and UTStarcom for different project associations.
Have managed large-scale business critical projects in different domains including Travel IT, dedicated to improving customer satisfaction; reduce costs and controlling risk, with effective vendor management.
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Head of Partnership Management,
Germanwings
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CEO,
National Air Services (NAS)
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Chief Commercial Officer,
FLYBE
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Manager Ebusiness & Distribution,
Nas Aviation
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Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing,
TechPubs, Inc.
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Head of Ecommerce,
Condor
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Chief Commercial Officer,
Norwegian Air Shuttle
Daniel Skjeldam is Director of Network and Revenue for Norwegian, Scandinavia’s largest LCC. He was part of the start-up team of Norwegian in 2002 and has since been Product Manager and Director of Station Services before entering his present position in January 2005. Before joining Norwegian, Skjeldam worked as a business consultant and also as an Officer in the Norwegian Army. He holds a degree in Master of Science from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Norwegian have 22 aircraft and flies to 61 destinations on 94 routes. In 2006 Norwegian had 6 million customers.
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SVP External Relations and Corporate Affairs,
Air Baltic
Guenther Sollinger joined Air Baltic in 2002 as Commercial Director. Currently he is head of External Relations & Corporate Affairs. Guenther graduated from Uppsala University and was a lecturer at Uppsala and Stockholm University before joining Scandinavian Airlines in Stockholm. In SAS he served in different positions at Head Office and abroad, amongst others as Regional Director for Eastern Europe and as General Manager form Russia.
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Chief Commercial Officer,
Spicejet
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Managing Director,
JLS Consulting
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Chief Operating Officer,
FlyBE
Andrew joined Flybe in 1995 to project manage fleet-type evaluation and aircraft introduction, at the same time as overseeing several key business development initiatives in the engineering wing of the Company. Andrew was rapidly promoted to become head of Aviation Services in 2003, and was appointed COO in 2005.
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Managing Director,
Aviation Industry Research and Advisory
Chris Tarry worked outside the City of London for a number of years. In 1984 he became an engineering analyst, focusing first on Aviation and was voted the UK’s leading aerospace analyst for the years that there was a separate FTSE grouping, before switching to focus wholly on transport and particularly airlines, a sector he has followed professionally since the early 1980s. In this period Chris was also regularly ranked in the top three European transport analysts and led a number of major international share issues.
In December 2002 he established CTAIRA to provide research, consulting services and advice on and to the transport and aviation industries in the areas of business planning, including strategy and strategic development; industry and market forecasting and performance measurement and evaluation. These services are provided to a broad and growing spectrum of clients; airlines, manufacturing companies, airport owners, government bodies and banks and other financial institutions, covering a wide range of strategic, financial and market related issues. He is and has been an advisor to government departments and the UK Parliament on aviation issues including the review of air transport arrangements for the Royal Family and senior Government ministers; he was a member of the UK CAA’s advisory group in respect of the charging regime for the UK’s regulated airports.
He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a member of the Securities Institute and a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
He also holds a private pilot’s licence. He gives regular lectures at Cranfield, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and the London School of Economics and is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the School of Management at the University of Surrey.
He writes a monthly column for Airline Business and regularly writes and comments in other media on industry issues as well as presenting and chairing conferences across the world.
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Chief Commercial Officer,
Air Baltic
Tero Taskila joined airBaltic from April as Chief Commercial Officer reporting to Bertolt Flick, President and CEO. He brought in a wealth of knowledge and experience in commercial and strategic management to help airBaltic to reinforce its growing hub in Riga.
Tero Taskila: „It is very exciting to join airBaltic, an airline that has experienced 40% passenger growth over the past couple of years, and is now very firmly set to further strengthening its hub in the Latvian capital of Riga with over 50 destinations to Russia and its former territories, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Mediterranean region.
The current economic climate is challenging, however for the creative, fast and professional organization such as airBaltic, these times are a great opportunity, as we can see from the recent growth figures of +36% in Q1 2009 in its home base in Riga. The airline has emerged as a leading player in Eastern European markets and with our new network structure, we are destined to be the carrier of choice from North to South and West to East.”
Tero has been instrumental in developing and executing Gulf Air's commercial turnaround program and sustainable growth strategy. Prior the assignment in Gulf Air, he has worked in commercial, strategic and operational issues around the globe. His academic qualifications serve as a right foundation for his work experience. He is pursuing a Doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering at London University. He also holds an MSc in Aeronautical Engineering (Air Transport Management) from the same university as well as business degree from University of Northern Colorado, USA.
Tero is a frequent speaker in conferences, seminars and universities on strategic and commercial issues. He is a regular Lecturer at London City University (in London and Dubai) about Strategy development, Low Cost airlines and optimal business models for short haul carriers. Tero’s lectures are regular also at Bad Honnef Fachhochschule (Private University for Masters degree in Hospitality and Air Transport Management) about Airline Planning -strategy development and implementation, Revenue Management and capacity Optimisation).
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Chief Executive Officer ,
PrivatAir
Greg Thomas joined PrivatAir in 1994 as General Counsel, handling the company’s regulatory, contractual and legal affairs and acting as Secretary of the Board of Directors. In 1998 he became a Member of the Executive Committee of the Board, and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in December 2000 and Chief Executive Officer in February 2003. Greg is also one of the Board directors of the International Geneva Airport and a member of the EBAA Board of Governors.
Before joining PrivatAir, Greg trained and qualified as a solicitor with Messrs Wilde Sapte, a large City of London law firm specialised in banking and finance. During this time, he was seconded to NatWest Markets and also to DG XIII of the European Commission in the Electronic Data Interchange section.
Greg obtained his LLB in European Law from Warwick University and studied for his Law Society Finals at the College of Law, Chester. He is British, lives in Geneva, Switzerland, and holds a private pilot’s licence.
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Director Central Publications,
Southwest Airlines
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Chief Commercial Officer,
AeroMobile
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Business Development Manager,
Transavia
Arian started his business career in late 1994 with VLM Airlines at Rotterdam Airport (RTM). Being responsible for Marketing & Sales, From VLM, after 5 enervating years with this regional airline, Arian moved to Schreiner Aviation Group, a Dutch air capacity provider in the airline and oil & gas industry. Being responsible for the fixed wing operation, his days were filled with looking after & optimizing operations and contracts with Sabena, Trans Travel Airlines & in the Libyan dessert.
In 2003, with Schreiner returning to its core business in the oil & gas industry, Arian picked up a challenge in the Dutch Caribbean. At the island of Bonaire, he became responsible for setting up a regional airline, BonairExel, which set out to give the local island communities a quality alternative for their travel demands between the islands of Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba & St. Maarten. It succeeded in doing so, which eventually led to another challenge: setting up a regular air service between Curacao and Amsterdam.
In Spring 2005, Arian decided to move back to home turf and join Transavia Airlines, picking up a new challenge on Marketing & Sales. Today, I am responsible for Business Development on the B2C side, with focal points network development, distribution & innovation.
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Chief Executive Officer,
Wizzair
Before conceiving the idea of a new Central-European low fare – low cost airline, József Váradi held the positions of Chief Executive Officer at Malév Hungarian Airlines. Váradi led the Restructuring Program of the company, which resulted in a major improvement of economics, cutting losses from €50 million to €10 million over 2 years. Prior to joining the airline industry, he had a 10 year successful commercial carrier at Procter&Gamble, leaving the company as Sales Director Global Customers for Central and Eastern Europe. Together with 5 friends and airline experts he founded Wizz Air in September 2003. The first flight took off on 19th May 2004. Váradi now leads one of Europe’s fastest developing and CEE’s largest low cost airline, which carried over 3 million passengers in 2006. Wizz Air today has 6 operating bases: Katowice, Warsaw, Gdansk in Poland, Budapest in Hungary, Sofia in Bulgaria, Bucharest in Romania and flies to close to 50 European destinations on more than 80 routes. With one of the largest aircraft orders of 44 new A320s, Wizz Air’s fleet should consist of up to 53 aircraft by 2012. In January 2007 Váradi has been awarded the ‘Innovator’ award on Ernst&Young’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ gala in Hungary.
József Váradi graduated from Budapest University of Economic Sciences. He is a father of three sons.
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Route Planning & Scheduling,
Baboo
Christophe is a result-focused manager and consultant with over 10 years of airline and aviation experience and strong expertise in the field of revenue and pricing management. He has designed, developed and implemented advanced revenue management models and systems for both low-fare and legacy carriers in Europe and North America. He notably held management positions with Porter Airlines, Air Canada, Jetsgo, Canada 3000, Royal Airlines and EasyJet in the areas of network planning, revenue management, strategic pricing and system development.
Christophe is an expert also specialized in airline start-ups and commercial strategic positioning. He has helped many new and existing airlines positioning themselves in their respective markets in order to differentiate product and increase profitability. He is currently working with Baboo Aiways in Geneva, a niche European Regional carrier, where he is responsible for all Network and Strategic Planning activities.
He is also a Member and Associate of Airline RM Training Group, a Montreal-based company specialized in providing RM and pricing support to airlines and travel-related companies all around the World.
Christophe holds a B.Sc. degree in Business with a major in urban planning, logistic and transportation and a Graduate Diploma in Management from HEC Montreal.
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Chief Commercial Officer,
Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies
Ian Wolfe holds Bachelor Degree in Commerce and Qualified in advanced finance. he is also CPA holder. With an extensive background in providing enterprise solutions and business transformation service across the globe. Post Graduate and joined Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies from Ansett Australian and Qantas Airlines.
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Head of Network Development,
Wizz Air
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Chairman,
Spring Airlines
Working Experience:
1965-1975 Vice-director, China Communist Youth League Changning Committee
1975-1986 Vide director of District Office of Changning District Government, Vice Secretary of CPC Changning District Zun Yi Community Committee
1986-now Chairman of Shanghai Spring Int’l Travel Service
2004-now Chairman of Spring Airlines
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Chief Commercial Officer ,
Baboo
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Vice President, Business to Consumer,
Transavia
Norbert Zoet, 39 years old, spent all his working career with transavia.com. He joined Transavia airlines’ marketing department in 1995 giving a stong impulse to the company’s scheduled service network. Being Product Manager, he initiated the Basiq Air label and introduced this low cost low fare service to the market in 2000 and soon became responsible for its Marketing and Sales. In 2005, Transavia airlines and Basiq Air were transformed into transavia.com and Zoet was appointed Vice President Business to Consumer. He now is responsible for the company’s consumer marketing and sales, ao pricing, revenue management, advertising, business development, distribution etc.
Norbert Zoet has an international education background, having studied at various schools and universities in USA and Europe, holding various transport, leisure study and marketing degrees.
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