South African Airways has turned inwards to appoint Oyama Mabandla as its first deputy chief executive in a move seen as putting him in line to succeed chief executive Andre Viljoen. Mabandla was executive vice-president strategy and planning, and prior to that executive vice-president general counsel.
Ato Bisrat Nigatu, the chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines since 1997 and a 30-year veteran of the carrier, is to retire in March. His replacement will be announced soon.
Sabre Holdings named Sam Gilliland head of its Travelocity unit to replace Bill Hannigan, who left to take the presidency of AT&T Corp. Michelle Peluso becomes the new head of Travelocity. She had been in charge of Sabre's Site59 unit, which sells last-minute vacation packages.
Alaska Airlines has named Frederick Mohr as vice-president of maintenance and engineering. He was most recently managing director of heavy maintenance for United Airlines.
Frontier Airlines has promoted Sean Menke to senior vice-president of marketing and Ann Block to senior vice-president of inflight and administrative services. Menke and Block joined Frontier in 1998 and 1999 respectively.
Source: Airline Business
