This week, BTE reports on changes in the senior management team at HRG, comings and goings at EOS Airlines and BCD Travel and the announced departure of Jörgen Lindegaard, president and ceo of SAS after five rough years at the helm.
Five years must seem quite long enough in charge of SAS as he joined the carrier in the quiet, peaceful days before the 9/11 terrorists attacks on America.
These helped catapult travel in general and airlines in particular into the deepest recession they have ever known and presented their ceos with far greater problems than they probably ever expected.
Like other airline ceos, the last five years have been days of cutting costs, services and staff, union battles, occasional strikes and radical changes in distribution probably not previously considered – an altogether bruising period.
SAS looks to have fared a swell as most although the first quarter results reported by some airlines, like Lufthansa and Alitalia show that the industry is far from out of thewoods.
Mr Lindegaard can point to SAS's first profit in five years in 2005 although the first quarter loss reported last week suggests it also still has far to go.
But it is understandable that he feels it is time, like Rod Eddington at BA last year, to hand the baton on to a new face. BTE wishes him well as he seeks his fresh challenge.