Christine Ourmières this month officially ended her brief
stint as Air France-KLM U.S. division president and general manager, becoming
CEO of Air France-KLM subsidiary CityJet, which serves 15 European destinations
from London City Airport. Air France vice president of marketing Patrick Roux
assumed Ourmières' role in the United States, as well as in the rest of the
Americas region, as senior vice president of the Americas.
Among Ourmières' initial objectives at CityJet are refining
its organizational structure, following the acquisition in 2007 of Belgian
airline VLM, achieving profitability and working on the airline's product and
customer experience.
"I think it's the right time for CityJet to rethink
many things with key strategic objectives," Ourmières said. Pointing to a
lagging recovery in Europe compared with the United States, she said, "I
think it's too early to speak about growth in the current European environment,"
noting the winter schedule, released last month, does not call for capacity
growth, though that may be revisited for the airline's summer schedule.
No stranger to her new market, before heading to the United
States in July 2009 Ourmières served as Air France-KLM general manager for the
United Kingdom and Ireland, which followed a number of executive positions in
information systems, sales, marketing and distribution. Though taking the helm
of a U.K.-based carrier, Ourmières will remain in New York and frequent the
transatlantic offering she helped develop.
"I will be one of the best customers on the
transatlantic flights of the joint venture," she said.