A boardroom reshuffle resulting from the take-over of UK charter airline Flying Colours by Airworld has seen the departure of two Airworld directors. Flying Colours managers have been appointed to most senior positions, despite the airline being taken over.
The move, which follows the June take-over of Flying Colours Leisure Group by Airworld parent Sunworld (itself a division of Thomas Cook) will result in the two airlines merging fully at the end of the 1998 summer season, with Flying Colours' chairman and chief executive Errol Cossey at the helm of the new airline.
Flying Colours managing director Terry Soult will continue in this role after the merger, while the flight operations, engineering and maintenance, finance and commercial services and cabin services directorships are all being taken by Flying Colours directors. Sean Dewey, Airworld's managing director, and technical operations director Tony Saville have left the company, with just one Airworld director, Sean Monnery, taking a senior post, as director of development and strategy.
The two carriers will merge their air operators' certificates in October, when the new airline's future identity will be officially unveiled. It is widely believed that the Flying Colours identity will be adopted for the new carrier. The operation will have a fleet which includes six Airbus A320s, two A321s and six Boeing 757-200s.
Cossey and some of the other Flying Colours directors are already key players in Airline Management (AML), the low cost long haul partnership with British Airways. Thomas Cook is believed already to have discussed the future of the AML tie-up following the take-over of Flying Colours, but nothing is expected to be decided until next year.
Source: Flight International
