Bangalore airport chief executive Brunner quits

Bangalore: Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Brunner is quitting the high-profile post and has decided not to renew his contract, the company said here Friday.
"Brunner, who has been associated with BIAL for seven challenging years, has decided to move on and not extend his contract. The promoters have appointed chief operating officer (COO) Marcel Hungerbuehler as the new CEO from February 1, 2009," the consortium said in a statement.
Swiss-born Brunner, who took over as CEO in 2002, steered the private-public consortium of BIAL through tough times to execute the Rs.26.4-billion greenfield project in a record 33 months after securing a plethora of clearances from the central and state governments.
"After seven years in this position, the time for a change has come. I came here on a three-year contract initially but ended up making Bangalore my home for seven years," the genteel Brunner said in the statement.
Hungerbuhler, who has been associated with BIAL since 2006, is a veteran in the aviation industry, having held top management positions with Swissair and Swissport previously.
On completion of five months of operations, Brunner admitted Nov 11 that the passenger traffic had hit an air pocket in the wake of global recession and turbulence in the Indian civil aviation sector, leading to drop in passenger traffic and pruning of flights by several carriers on the domestic and international routes.BIAL has also suffered Rs.1.91-billion loss due to default in payment by various airlines and non-levy of the user development fee (UDF) on domestic passengers.
21/10/08 IANS/Sindh Today

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008