Martin Gauss confirmed as new CEO of airBaltic
Baku, October 24 (AZERTAC). On 21 October, the Latvian national carrier airBaltic announced its new CEO: Martin Gauss, former CEO of Hungarian national carrier Malev. Gauss will assume his duties on 1 November, reports news2biz.
Like yjr airline`s previous CEO Bertolt Flick, Gauss is also German. Unlike Flick, he has a notable experience in the aviation industry outside airBaltic. He is a Boeing 737 pilot with more than 8,000 flying hours and has previously worked as a crisis manager for other companies.
Having started his carreer in 1992 as a pilot for Deutsche BA, he eventually became Managing Director of the airline as it was losing money and returned it to profits. In 2006, the airline was sold to AirBerlin.
Gauss` previous job at Malev is notably familiar to what he is about to face in airBaltic. Malev, too, was nominally a national carrier, in reality controlled by a number of foreign owners. Under Gauss, the airline slashed its unprofitable operations, simplified its fleet from five different aircraft to just two and introduced other cost-cutting measures. Malev is yet to return to profits, however.
Gauss left his job at Malev on May 2011.
The airline`s previous CEO Flick left the job after the Latvian government made it a condition for bailing out the airline. Considering that he is still hiding in Germany and the Latvian law enforcement authorities have started an investigation on him, the decision seems reasonable.
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