CHARM OFFENSIVE - Orient Aviation

d i a r ySHIFTS at S.A.L.E: Singapore Airlines (SIA) senior executive, Matthew Samuel (pictured right),has resigned as founding chairman of SingaporeAircraft Leasing Enterprise (S.A.L.E.), the Singaporebasedaircraft lessor started in 1993. His successor asnon-executive chairman and a non-executive directoris SIA’s senior vice-president (administration), ChewChoon Seng. At the same time, S.A.L.E. announced theexpanded role in the company of chief financial officer,Phang Thim Fatt. He is now deputy managing directorto S.A.L.E.’s managing director, Robert Martin. S.A.L.E.has set up a European office in London.PERSPECTIVEBOEING MOVES: Boeing’s China public relationsboss, Tom McLean, who has spent thelast 13 years in the country, will soon moveonto bigger things for the global aerospacegroup. Mandarin-speaking McLean, whose localknowledge, graciousness and professionalismearned him universal respect among theindustry’s China operators and media, willbe stepping out as Boeing’s new director ofinternational communications in WashingtonDC from October. He will work with Boeing’snew senior vice-president for internationalrelations, Thomas Pickering, company vicepresidentof international communications,Matthew de la Haye and Hong Kong-basedmanaging director of public relations andcommunications in the Asia Pacific and theMiddle East, Mark Hooper. McLean has beenworking for Boeing China Inc. in Beijing forthe last three years.UNFAIR: South Korea’s two internationalairlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, haveclaimed that an August decision by the U.S.Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) todowngrade the country’s air safety ratingunfairly penalises them for oversights that arethe fault of government regulatory agencies.In May, a regular FAA inspection concludedthat South Korean air safety investigatorslacked complete objectivity, investigationstaff were not technically competent andthat problems existed in enforcing flight operationrules and pilot screening. Activatingthe downgrade will prevent Korean Air andAsiana from adding new services into theU.S. and forbid code-shares on future serviceswith U.S. airlines, a decision the two Koreancarriers said could cost them up to US$500million in revenue in the next 18 months. (SeeRegional Round-Up page 12)EVERYWHERE MAN: Allan Pellegrini,Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation’s(MASC) new senior vice-president marketingand operations, has parted company withSAD LOSS: Airbus Industrie’s China boss,Pierre de Montgolfier, died in August inFrance. The erudite Frenchman, who tookcharge of the demanding China portfoliolast year, collapsed suddenly in June. Salesdirector for China, Guy McLeod, is actingpresident of Airbus China.airline e-mail, intranet and selected Internetprovider, Tenzing Communications, to join theCalifornia-based, Japanese-owned inflighthardware manufacturer. Before he joinedTenzing as president and chief operatingofficer last year, Pellegrini was first the salesand marketing boss for Hughes Avicom,which became Rockwell Collins PassengerSystems after a buy-out by the Cedar Rapidsconglomerate three years ago. Pellegrinimoved up to vice-president marketing andsales for Rockwell’s Air Transport Group andthen left for Tenzing in March 2000. MASC’spresident is Takashi Mazumi.Twenty five-year Swire veteran, EdwardNicol, until August the overall chief executiveof Cathay Pacific Catering Services’ eleven U.S.and Asia-Pacific airline kitchens, took overfrom Pellegrini. Nicol ran the very successfulelite frequent flyer (FFP) business class programmePassages until its member airlines,Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlinesand Malaysia Airlines, decided to launch individualFFPs late in the last decade. Nicol will beable to particularly understand the interestsof one Tenzing minority shareholder, whobought 10% of the company early this year– his former employer Cathay Pacific. In June,Airbus Industrie announced it had acquired30% of Seattle-based Tenzing CommunicationsInc. (See Inflight Asia page 32).SPARE SIMULATOR ANYONE? Simulatorsfor a Comanche Attack helicopter and anAirbus A340 were among the 10,000 goods,gadgets and big boys toys which failed to attractbids at the six-day auction of Prince JefriBolkiah of Brunei’s construction and supplycompany, Amedeo Development, conductedin the oil-funded sultanate in mid-August.Other items up for sale at the auction, instructedto proceed following the bankruptcyof Amedeo in 1998, were a Formula Oneracing car simulator, two Mercedes Benz fireengines, a 12-foot high rocking horse andtwo antique cannons. Nobody wanted themeither in a sale that netted US$7.8 million,an amount that barely registered a blip ina bankruptcy that has lost the Sultanate ofBrunei US$15 billion.Polo playing Prince Jefri, widely believedto be the Sultan of Brunei’s favourite sibling,has not been totally accepting of the limitsnow imposed on his Royal purse strings.Recently, an investigator despatched toBrunei to look into the prince’s affairs toldPerspective that when a young son of PrinceJefri expressed an interest in soccer, his fatherimported top British players to coachand field teams against his son in a Bruneistadium equipped with a Tannoy systemand 2,000 life-sized cardboard spectators.When the young Prince scored the speakersystem would emit booming cheers and the2,000 cardboard fans would pop up fromtheir seats to encourage the young prince inhis game.10 | Orient Aviation | September 2001