{"id":77189,"date":"2018-08-16T20:25:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T18:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=77189"},"modified":"2022-07-28T13:44:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T11:44:38","slug":"ben-smith-air-france-klm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Smith takes the helm at Air France KLM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a pilot at <strong>Air France KLM<\/strong>. Or at least, his arrival won't be long in coming. As has been rumoured for several days, <strong>Ben Smith<\/strong>\u00a0has been chosen to take the helm of the airline group, which has been without any real governance since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/air-france-demission-pdg-20180504.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resignation of its CEO<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/decideur-jean-marc-janaillac-president-directeur-general-air-france-klm-20160920.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jean-Marc Janaillac<\/a>three months earlier.<\/p>\n    <style>\n        div.link-block {\n            margin: 1em;\n            margin-left: 2px;\n            font-weight: bold;\n            padding: 1em;\n            position: relative;\n            border-top: 1px solid #cecece;\n            border-bottom: 1px solid #cecece;\n            font-size: 1.15rem;\n        } \n        div.link-block::before {\n            display: block;\n            content: '';\n            position: absolute;\n            top: 0.5em;\n            bottom: 0.5em;\n            left: -2px;\n            background-color: #a91c2c;\n            border-radius: 2.5px;\n            width: 5px;\n        }\n        div.link-block > a {\n            text-decoration: none;\n            border-bottom: none;\n            color: black;\n            font-family: 'Roboto', Arial, sans-serif;\n        }\n        div.link-block > a:hover {\n            text-decoration: underline;\n            border-bottom: none;\n            color: black;\n        }\n        @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) {\n            div.link-block {\n                padding: 0.7em;\n            }\n        }\n    <\/style>\n    <div class=\"link-block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/air-france-klm-strategy\">Read also: Air France-KLM confirms its three-brand strategy<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Ben Smith, 46, is currently President, Airlines and Chief Operating Officer at <strong>Air Canada<\/strong>whose website publishes a glowing biography: \"\u00a0<em>Ben is the visionary behind the strategic and diversified expansion of Air Canada's global network (...). He is also the principal architect of the development of Toronto Pearson as Air Canada's major global hub in addition to Vancouver. <\/em>\".<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_77251\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77251\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-af-klm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-77251\" src=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-af-klm.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Smith\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-af-klm.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-af-klm-300x169-derived.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-77251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Benjamin Smith was officially appointed on 16 August.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to the press release issued by Air France KLM on Thursday evening, \"\u00a0<em>As soon as he arrives, Benjamin Smith will <strong>executive general management<\/strong> of the Air-France-KLM Group and will determine its organisation. Its priorities will be to <strong>revitalising Air France<\/strong>to give a major strategic boost to the Group, and to work with the teams to <strong>a new management approach\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\".<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>earn the trust and respect of Air France-KLM teams<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the same press release, Benjamin Smith said: \".\u00a0<em>I am more than enthusiastic about this new mission. Air France and KLM are two very large airlines, recognised throughout the world for the professionalism and commitment of their teams. I am aware that the Group is currently facing a number of challenges. <strong>competitiveness issues<\/strong>But I am convinced that the teams of all the Group's airlines have everything they need to succeed in the global air transport market. <\/em>\". He added: \"\u00a0<em>I want to earn the trust and respect of the Air France-KLM teams so that we can work and succeed together in this highly competitive and fast-changing industry.<\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>a foreign manager who is being lobbied by a rival industrial group<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It remains to be seen how the new boss of Air France KLM will be received, in a social climate that remains tense. Especially since, a few hours before Ben Smith's appointment, the<strong>inter-union<\/strong> had warned: \"\u00a0<em>It is <strong>inconceivable<\/strong> that Air France, a French company since 1933, falls into the hands of a <strong>foreign manager<\/strong> whose candidacy would be pushed by a <strong>competing industrial group<\/strong> (Delta Airlines to name but one)<\/em>\u00a0\"she insisted in a press release published on the morning of 16 August...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>an opportunity for Air France-KLM to attract an executive of this calibre<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a joint communiqu\u00e9, the Ministers <strong>Elisabeth Borne<\/strong> and <strong>Bruno Lemaire<\/strong> for their part, hail \"\u00a0<em>the choice of<strong>a leading air transport professional<\/strong>whose career is a testament to her <strong>in-depth knowledge<\/strong> of the sector on an international scale and strong managerial skills\u00a0<\/em>\"and believe that\u00a0<em>is <strong>an opportunity<\/strong> for Air France-KLM to attract an executive of this calibre\u00a0<\/em>\".<\/p>\n<p>On Twitter, the former CEO of the <strong>Jean-Marc Janaillac<\/strong> has presented its \"\u00a0<em>best wishes of success to Benjamin Smith, a leading air transport professional, to enable AFKLM, with its strong workforce, its various airlines and its international allies, to play a lasting role in the sector's development<\/em>\" .<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Air France KLM Board of Directors confirmed on Thursday afternoon the appointment of Benjamin Smith as the group's new Chief Executive Officer. The current number two at Air Canada will take up his post \"no later than 30 September 2018\". The unions are protesting against the appointment of a \"foreign executive\". <\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":77191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[129,131,2171],"type-darticle":[52],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-77189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerien","tag-air-france","tag-compagnies-aeriennes","tag-klm","type-darticle-breve","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ben Smith, futur patron d\u2019Air France KLM, d\u00e9j\u00e0 sous la pression de l&#039;intersyndicale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ben Smith sera bien le nouveau patron d&#039;Air France KLM. Le Conseil d\u2019administration du groupe a confirm\u00e9 jeudi la d\u00e9signation de l&#039;actuel num\u00e9ro deux d&#039;Air Canada en tant que Directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral. L&#039;intersyndicale avait d\u00e9j\u00e0 critiqu\u00e9 quelques heures plus t\u00f4t la nomination d&#039;un &quot;dirigeant \u00e9tranger&quot;.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benjamin Smith prend les commandes d\u2019Air France KLM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ben Smith sera bien le nouveau patron d&#039;Air France KLM. Le Conseil d\u2019administration du groupe a confirm\u00e9 jeudi la d\u00e9signation de l&#039;actuel num\u00e9ro deux d&#039;Air Canada en tant que Directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral. L&#039;intersyndicale avait d\u00e9j\u00e0 critiqu\u00e9 quelques heures plus t\u00f4t la nomination d&#039;un &quot;dirigeant \u00e9tranger&quot;.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voyages d&#039;affaires\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-16T18:25:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-28T11:44:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-canada.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Florian Guillemin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Florian Guillemin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm\",\"name\":\"Ben Smith, futur patron d\u2019Air France KLM, d\u00e9j\u00e0 sous la pression de l'intersyndicale\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-canada.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-16T18:25:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-28T11:44:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/21d3288dfdda735a7c37eb00030560b7\"},\"description\":\"Ben Smith sera bien le nouveau patron d'Air France KLM. 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