Airline executive known as the “Fixer” moves from Seychelles to India

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

The cat is now finally out of the bag when it was announced earlier in the week that Cramer Ball, who on behalf of Abu Dhabi’s national airline Etihad steered Air Seychelles through the restructurin

The cat is now finally out of the bag when it was announced earlier in the week that Cramer Ball, who on behalf of Abu Dhabi’s national airline Etihad steered Air Seychelles through the restructuring period and returned the airline to profitability, will be taking charge at Etihad’s Indian partner airline Jet Airways, the second largest private airline in India after IndiGo.

After a prolonged process of regulatory approvals, Etihad eventually secured a 24-percent stake in this private Indian airline which, however, just posted record losses according the latest information available from financial publications, the likely reason for the departure two months ago of the airline’s CEO. The annual loss increased nearly 5 times compared to the last financial year and poses a challenge to Etihad, which partner airline Air Berlin is equally struggling with sustained losses and needed a shareholder bailout to stay liquid and aloft.

The massive losses at Jet Airways were at least in part attributed to a rise of nearly 30 percent in costs over the last year besides substantial one-off write downs of asset values.

The announcement of a fifth straight quarter loss went along with the appointment of Cramer Ball who earned himself a reputation as Etihad’s “Fixer,” having turned a loss-making Air Seychelles around during his two-year stint at the helm in Victoria before leaving at the end of his contract, ostensibly already knowing that his next task would take him to Mumbai where similar problems will await his arrival, just in much greater numbers.

All the best to Cramer who will no doubt have his work cut out for himself when he will take charge in June of this year.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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