Jetstar announces management shakeup as expansion gets underway
Budget carrier Jetstar Airways announced on Thursday that it is embarking on management restructuring in light of its accelerated expansion plans for both domestic and international service routes.
The Qantas subsidiary said that its current chief executive Bruce Buchanan would be elevated as group chief executive to take charge of the airlines' overall operation while David Hall would be pulled out from Qantas' management roster to take the helm as Jetstar's chief executive for Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Hall would be tasked to supervise the entry of the new fleet of Boeing 787 to Jetstar following his stint at Qantas' group executive corporate services and technology.
Also, Jetstar Asia's chief executive Chong Phit Lian would be given the additional responsibilities of establishing the airlines' long-distance station in Singapore and managing the carrier's Asian businesses and investments.
Qantas (ASX: QAN) chief executive Alan Joyce said that Jetstar's restructuring efforts are set to strengthen its growth in order to ensure that "we are well placed to successfully expand our footprint to new markets throughout Asia."
The low-cost airline is in the middle of aggressive expansion and in June this year, it declared that two Airbus A330 would commence servicing routes between Singapore, Auckland and Melbourne, and most recently indicating that additional flights would be established in Queenstown and Cairns.
Jetstar also decided to advance the delivery of new Boeing 787 it ordered as it revealed that the new aircrafts were scheduled to be delivered on the middle part of 2012, which is two years earlier than previously announced.
As of 1452 AEST on Thursday, Qantas shares were trading at $2.59, improving by five cents from previous trading day.