Losing its top executives - Cargolux headquarters in Luxembourg.
Only a week ago, the carrier’s VP Marketing Robert van de Weg resigned from his post and left the airline. Now Chief Operating Officer Peter van de Pas decided to exit the carrier as well.
Cargolux is losing its top executives. That’s the bitter truth after former KLM manager Peter van de Pas, who became Cargolux’s COO in 2009, decided to leave the airline, effective March 31st,
2014.
The question everyone now asks at the carrier’s headquarters at Luxembourg Findel airport is who comes next. However, there aren’t many left at the top deck that could follow suit and file their
resignation.
The exit of Robert van de Weg and Peter van de Pas clearly shows the big rift between the members of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors. This gap, which is now reaching dramatic
proportions, has obviously widened lately and cannot be camouflaged any longer.
The reason for the disagreement is the commercial agreement signed between Cargolux and Chinese public investor HNCA. This treaty concedes the Chinese side wide-ranging strategic and operational
rights, which clearly limits the decision-making power of the carrier’s Luxembourg-based Management Board Members and constrains their framework for business activities and strategic
guidelines.
It seems that after the month-long dispute between Cargolux and its former stakeholder (35%) Qatar Airways that ended in a separation of the former partners in November 2012, the new pact between
Cargolux and HNCA is not blessed with good fortune either.
Heiner Siegmund