LIFE AFTER SQ006 - Orient Aviation

d i a r yFORBIDDEN LOVE: The Philippines Immigration chief, AndreaDomingo, fined tiny Continental Micronesia Airlines with50,000 Pesos (US$1025) for smuggling a mistress of theformer Philippines president, Joseph Estrada into the countryin late February. Domingo said the Guam-based airline sneakedLaarni Enriquez into Manila by using only part of her name,granting her unaccounted passenger status and assisting her inbypassing immigration procedures.Well known in her native Philippines, Enriquez was spottedleaving Manila International Airport – wearing a hood – in thecompany of an aide to Antonio Gana. Gana is an Estrada aide anduntil his recent dismissal was general manager of Manila InternationalAirport. A Gana assistant, Jake Acuna, is to be chargedwith human smuggling, said the immigration boss.Enriquez fled the Philippines to the US on January 11, via HongKong, to avoid being subpoenaed to testify against her lover inhis impeachment hearings in the same month. Philippines justiceminister, Hernani Perez, said the grounded Enriquez as well asother Estrada mistresses would be included in the criminal caseto be filed against the deposed Philippines leader.PERSPECTIVECHALLENGE: At last Malaysia Airlines(MAS) has a new managing director, governmentappointee, Dato Mohamad Nor BinMohamad Yusof, an advisor in the nationalfinance ministry. At the same time, MAS announcedits new chairman, Azizan ZainalAbidin, who also is chairman of the national oilcompany, Petroliam Nasional Bhd. In January,the Malaysian Government bought the 29%of MAS held by mercurial Malaysian entrepreneurand the carrier’s former chairman, Tan SriTajudin Ramli, bringing the nation’s equity inMAS to 59%. A few weeks earlier, the formerowner of Lauda Air, Niki Lauda, confirmed hehad been approached and had declined anoffer to head MAS.ORDERLY SUCCESSION: KichisaburoNomura (66), president of All Nippon Airways(ANA), will be chairman of ANA from April 1.His successor as president of Japan’s secondinternational carrier will be Yoji Ohashi (61), a37-year veteran of ANA. A law graduate likeNomura, Ohashi’s first major job at ANA wasas director of sales in 1988. From that springboardhe became senior director and generalmanager for the airline at Narita Airport from1993 to 1995 when he was appointed to runthe airline’s U.S. offices from New York. Hewas made an ANA managing director in 1997and is currently the airline’s senior executivevice-president.HANDOVER: Qantas Airways chief executiveand managing director, James Strong,formally handed over running of the Australianflag carrier, Qantas Airways, to his formerdeputy Geoff Dixon on March 5, but notbefore he presided over the 2001 FormulaOne (F1) Grand Prix motor race in Melbournea day earlier. Strong is an avid motorcyclingracing fan and has been particularly happy forQantas Airways to be a major sponsor of theJames Strong: racing aheadAustralian F1 – the first race each year on theannual competition’s 17 event internationalcalendar.Geoff Dixon’s team is chief financial officerPeter Gregg and seven executive general managers:John Borghetti (sales and distribution),Denis Adams (marketing), Paul Edwards (networkmanagement), Steve Mann (customerservices), David Forsyth (Aircraft Operations)Narendra Kumar (subsidiary businesses) andDavid Burden (technology and services). Inlate February, Qantas revealed a 22% declinein first half profits and announced it would cutits workforce by 5% (page 15). Meanwhile, itwas announced that Strong is to be the newchairman of Woolworths in Australia.TRANSFORMED: Across the Tasman Sea,AirNZ-Ansett Group chief executive, GaryToomey, announced his restructuring of thegroup into seven divisions, which also markedout the executives who have survived themerger of the two airlines. Still in the foldare Ansett managers Andrew Miller (CEO ofAnsett International and head of the newgroup’s sales and distribution division), andTrevor Jensen (operations). Other newdivision heads are Lesley Grant (customerservice), George Frazis (strategy, network andmarketing), Brendan Fitzgerald (world-wideairport services) and Kevin Turnbull (businessenhancement). Toomey is still looking for aboss to run the new ventures division of thegroup.SORRY: United Airlines (UAL), the world’slargest carrier, has apologised on behalf ofcabin crew on a February Hong Kong-Singaporeflight who failed to notice that one oftheir passengers had died during the flight.A witness to the events leading up the deathof the middle-aged US male passenger saidcabin crew failed to notice the condition ofthe 51-year-old passenger, who had died bythe time the aircraft had landed in Singapore,until he was pointed out to them bydisembarking travellers. A UAL spokesmanin Hong Kong offered his condolences to theman’s family, according to Hong Kong’s SouthChina Morning Post. The spokesman said thecabin crew had acted as quickly as possible tothe situation when made aware of it and thatthe flight attendants had followed local andairline regulations in doing so.PACIFIC TIES: As the only Democrat inPresident George Bush’s cabinet, the newhead of the U.S Department of Transportation,Norman Y. Mineta (69), could bringsome much-needed cultural understandingto US-Asia relations. Californian Mineta waschairman for eight years of the House AviationSubcommittee and was in charge of theNational Civil Aviation Review Commission– which set out the blueprint for overhaul ofthe Federal Aviation Administration. In the lastsix months of the Clinton presidency, he wasSecretary of Commerce.10 | Orient Aviation | March 01