The president of All Nippon Airways (ANA), Seiji Fukatsu, has been forced to quit after a row with two non-executive members of the airline's board over the pace and style of his reforms.
In a move which has surprised many in Japan's airline industry, Fukatsu tendered his resignation, effective from early June. He had been widely expected to stay on for a third two-year term, but will now be replaced by ANA Real Estate president Kenzo Yoshikawa.
Fukatsu had gained a reputation since his appointment in 1993 for his independent approach to reforming Japan's second-largest airline. This put him on a collision course with some of ANA's 14,600-strong workforce and ultimately the airline's chairman, Takaya Sugiura, and ANA's powerful honorary chairman, Tokuji Wakasa.
"The biggest difference of opinion was over Fukatsu's relationship with the trade unions. He took a fairly combative stance last year, and Sugiura and Wakasa decided that was not in the best interests of the airline. Those differences in the end could not be resolved," explains an inside source.
In an effort to cut costs and improve productivity, Fukatsu proposed revised contracts to the workforce in April 1996. While this was accepted by the general staff union, which includes ANA cabin crew, the pilots refused to accept the offered minimum wage formula in a new pay-by-the-hour scheme.
ANA's decision unilaterally to impose the new contracts resulted in two one-day pilot strikes in late 1996. The threat of a third strike in February was averted after the airline agreed to revert to the old pay structure while a new deal was being negotiated.
Some in the airline have suggested that the differences between the three men were far more fundamental. Wakasa and Sugiura are former transport ministry bureaucrats, and it was Fukatsu's apparent refusal to accept more appointments of retired officials to ANA that prompted the battle.
Wakasa has proved to be a survivor over the past 28 years with the airline. He was implicated in the 1976 Lockheed bribery scandal and found guilty of perjury and violating foreign-exchange regulations by accepting ´160 billion ($1.2 million) in bribes. He was later acquitted by parliament.
Source: Flight International
