Airline seeks new chief executive

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 6

Airline seeks new chief executive

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

Ansett New Zealand us looking for a new chief executive, after the resignation yesterday of Mr Ross Keenan, who has headed the airline for almost a year. An appointment is unlikely until next month. In September Mr Keenan will take over from Mr Rex Loach as managing director of the Newmans Group. Mr Keenan would not reveal whether he had applied for, or was offered, the top job with Newmans. However, Ansett Australia’s general manager, Mr Graeme McMahon, said from Melbourne that Newmans had offered Mr Keenan a package which Ansett could not match. Asked if he had been surprised by the resignation, Mr McMahon said he had known for some time that Mr Keenan had been approached by Newmans. Mr McMahon denied

that Ansett had a replacement waiting in the wings to fill Mr Keenan’s position. It was also too early to say whether the new chief executive would be an Australian or a New Zealander. Ansett was more pleased with the New Zealand airline’s performance in gaining an appropriate share of the market. Yields, however,

were not as good as tney should have been because of heavy discounting, he said. Would Ansett consider pulling out if losses continue? "We have no intention of withdrawing: we are in New Zealand to stay,” Mr McMahon said. Mr Keenan will take command of Newmans when the company moves its head office from Nelson to Auckland in September. William Hobbs, Nelson reporter of “The Press,” writes that Mr Keenan spent 20 years with Air New Zealand before accepting the position of chief executive of Ansett when that company was formed as a joint venture between Newmans, Brierley Investments and Ansett Transport Industries of Australia. The new company absorbed the tourist airline which, had previously been established by Newmans.