Nico Bezuidenhout, former Mango chief executive, may return to the low-cost airline after nearly three years as the chief executive of Fastjet, according to an article in Business Report.
The article says the process to appoint a new chief executive was questionable and that there was a determined effort to bring Nico back and that the job requirements were written with him in mind.
Nico has been largely credited with driving e-ticket implementation within SAA and materially growing e-commerce and direct sales at the national carrier while he also led the team that developed the business plan that culminated in the launch of Mango.
SAA head of media relations, Tlali Tlali, told eTNW: “We confirm that the board at Mango Airlines is at an advanced stage of searching for its airline chief executive. We are not in a position to share any further details on this as the search process has not been finalised.” He added that it was the airline's considered view that the job requirements laid out during this process were within the norm, "as the minimum qualifications must be accompanied by the highest level of experience, such as 10 years as ceo of an airline".
