Aviation veteran Peter Davies headhunted for Air Malta position

Man with 27 years’ experience in aviation could be next chief executive

22 March 2011, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

1 min read

Informed sources have told MaltaToday that Peter Davies has been asked to take on the role of chief executive of national airline Air Malta.

Peter Davies has been managing director of Air Southwest, a UK regional airline. He has more than 27 years’ experience in aviation including chief executive of SN Brussels Airlines, and senior posts with DHL Express Systems in the UK, Belgium and North America for 12 years. Most recently he was chief executive of Caribbean Airlines in the West Indies.

As Chief Executive of SN Brussels Airlines, the Belgium national airline he was responsible for the turnaround following the bankruptcy of Sabena Airlines.

Prior to that he was Chief Operating Office, DHL Express, USA where he was responsible for over 10,000 people and realised a significant turnaround in profitability and increased sales margins from 4% to 12%.

Before that, he was Regional Director, DHL Europe where he established DHL as the leader in express delivery across emerging markets in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. In 2006 Davies accepted the appointment as Chief Executive of BWIA West Indies Airways which closed later that year.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

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Perhaps BWIA was not mentioned in more detail because the Govt of Trinidad and Tobago had to come up with US$250Million to buy out the unions at BWIA in the forming of the successor Caribbean Airlines? And a daily prime time LHR slot series was sold to BA for £5m. This caused considerable adverse comment in Trinidad.

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This is great news. Peter Davies is in my opinion the right man for Air Malta. Under his strong leadership he created a new sustainable future for Belgian aviation in the aftermath of 9/11 and an economic crisis, he was the architect of Carribean Airlines that succesfully replaced BWIA (this is not mentioned in the article) and is industry wide recognized for his capabilities. Believe me, you don't become director of DHL if you are not capable. On top a great people manager. What an improvement over the previous (Dutch) name of a guy who created the largest mess ever at Easyjet and who didn't have a clue about an IATA 'interline' airline. Or a financial controller fired at BMI ... If the Air Malta staff, the Government, the MTA, MIA and the other stakeholders help him a hand he willl bring for sure Air Malta on cruising altitude and attitude. This will only be possible if he gets all necessary support. This means a government that doesn't canabalize Air Malta by subsidizing lowcost airlines, employees that act as ambassadors of their company and stop playing politics against eachother, unions that understand it is one minute before 12, a network and commercial department that can address the huge seasonality effect Air Malta is confronted with, an airport that gives its best parking positions to Air Malta and not to Ryanair like it is doing to day so that bussing can be avoided at all times, etc etc. Finally some encouraging news

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@ mber, your answer lies with the minster of finaNce. BECAUSE HE IS NOT A MALTESE CUC. so says Fenech. Lets all hope and pray that Mr Davies finds the solution to restructure Air malta without any intevention from the government.

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Why are Maltese people never given these posts? Surely there are qualified individuals who are maltese.

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Good News, lets hope he accepts the post and is successful with the challenges that face him. He must not allow non-commercial pressure to get the edge over his commercial direction.