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Paris / AFP
Jean-Marc Janaillac, head of French transport group Transdev, is likely to be nominated to head Air France-KLM on Tuesday following the surprise resignation of CEO Alexander de Juniac, French economic newspaper La Tribune reported.
“According to our information, the group’s nomination committee which met on Friday decided to propose Tuesday to the Air France-KLM board the name of Jean-Marc Janaillac… to lead the airline group,” La Tribune said on its website.
Janaillac, 63, was among the most frequently mentioned names, along with former GDF Suez CEO Jean-Francois Cirelli, to succeed Juniac.
The airline chief on April 5 announced his surprise resignation to take charge of aviation industry group IATA by the end of July. The board of directors of the Franco-Dutch airline group will meet on Tuesday to review the candidacy of Janaillac.
If accepted, he will be proposed to join the board at a general meeting on May 19, with the board to then meet to name him CEO, the paper said.
Juniac helped Europe’s second biggest airline group return to profit last year for the first time since 2008, but his four-year spell at the helm was also marked by acrimonious relations with pilots.
Air France–KLM is a Franco-Dutch airline holding company incorporated under French law with its headquarters at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Tremblay-en-France, near Paris. The group has offices in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, and in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
Air France–KLM is the result of the merger in 2004 between Air France and KLM.
In May 2010, Air France–KLM announced increased losses (€1.56 billion for the year to March 31, 2010), and warned that the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull had caused a further €160 million loss in the current financial year.
Air France–KLM is one of the largest airline companies in Europe, with 204.7 billion passenger-km in the year ending March 31, 2011.