Carriers Reorganize Their Ranks

<B>Carriers Reorganize Their Ranks</B>

By David Jonas

Just a few weeks into the new millennium, several carriers have announced executive restructuring that allows each to focus on enhanced strategies for the year ahead and beyond.

At Continental, the recent departure of vice president of marketing Richard Metzner--headed for Brierly & Partners, a Dallas-based relationship management firm--set in motion a series of organizational changes that target an improved interface with the carrier's corporate clientele. Mark Bergsrud, formerly responsible for revenue programs, replaces Metzner.

Much of Bergsrud's old responsibilities--including corporate discount programs and analysis, direct connections, agency commissions and sales systems--have been handed to Dave Hilfman, now vice president of multinational sales and revenue programs. Hilfman retains responsibility over mega agency and multinational accounts.

"Dave understands the profitability needs of our company, and in his expanded role, he is a staff person while keeping relationships with distributors," said Bonnie Reitz, senior vice president of sales and marketing. "The sales and marketing team has been integrated for a while and we have great depth in the organization."

Hilfman then spun off the corporate sales team, headed by Monisa Cline. It now is organized under June Bennett, vice president of sales, in a unified general salesforce. Bennett had formerly headed the North America sales team. "We are transitioning our field sales team to call on corporations more directly, with the ability to call on more and more accounts," Hilfman said. "We still will spend more time on the agency side, but as corporations become more interested in working directly, we felt we needed to spend more time with them."

Continental also is firing up its Officer Local Involvement program. All 40 or so corporate officers at the airline adopt one of Continental's domestic destination cities to talk with employees and go on sales calls to both travel agency and corporate clients. "There is a big focus on corporate sales, from president and COO Greg Brenneman all the way down the line, and we are looking to step it up in a big way," Hilfman said.

Meanwhile, since AMR Corp. shed Sabre last month, American Airlines implemented a restructuring of its own to focus efforts on airline operations. The changes are centered around a newly formed Office of the Chairman, which aside from chairman and CEO Don Carty, will include newly appointed vice chairman Robert Baker. Formerly executive vice president of operations, Baker now is responsible for all external matters and technical operations, including interfacing with government agencies and industry groups.

Michael Gunn, formerly senior vice president of marketing, takes on added responsibilities as executive vice president of marketing and planning. He now oversees flight service, reservations, sales, revenue management, interactive marketing, market planning, alliances, international planning and capacity and fleet planning.

Air France also made a few changes to its management team. Pascal de Izaguirre now oversees all operations at the Paris Charles de Gaulle hub while Jean-Louis Pinson assumed the post of vice president and COO of the Americas. "My goals are to sell connecting flights from the United States, through Charles de Gaulle to beyond destinations," Pinson said, adding that electronic ticketing and interlining are high on his priority list.

Pinson also is emphasizing the travel agency community. For starters, the airline has created an exclusive travel agency Internet site to provide password-protected information to agents. He also is working to incentivize agents who sell Charles de Gaulle as a main European hub.

Christopher Korenke assumed the role of vice president and general manager of the USA, the post vacated by Pinson. Korenke is responsible for all passenger sales, marketing, finance and operations in the United States.