Financially struggling US Airways Group Inc. yesterday announced new management appointments in response to the resignations and retirements of five top executives in the past two months.
The management appointments include a replacement for B. Ben Baldanza, US Airways' senior vice president of marketing and planning. One of the airline's most visible figures, Baldanza oversaw the carrier's frequent-flier program and marketing, and helped develop the airline's turnaround plan designed to bring it out of bankruptcy court.
Baldanza, who started at US Airways in 1999 and was one of the airline's longest-serving contemporary senior executives, will take over as president and chief operating officer of Spirit Airlines Inc. on Jan. 24, Spirit officials said yesterday.
In a statement, Baldanza said he was "excited" about joining the Florida-based, low-cost, low-fare airline. He said that Spirit had the "cost structure and the fundamentals to ensure stability and growth."
Bruce Ashby, US Airways' senior vice president of alliances and president of US Airways Express regional operations, was named Baldanza's replacement. Some labor leaders and other US Airways executives have praised Ashby for his role in overseeing the airline's labor negotiations. Ashby led US Airways' charge to get the carrier's unions to agree on nearly $1 billion in wage and benefits cuts, which the airline said it needed to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
US Airways also made four other management appointments, including vice president of safety and regulatory compliance; vice president and deputy general counsel; vice president of finance and treasurer; and a new president and chief executive of one of its subsidiaries, Piedmont Airlines Inc.
All of the appointments were made from within.
While US Airways worked to fill the vacated positions, some airline industry experts questioned the airline's future and the impact the sudden resignations would have on the morale of remaining employees.
"Management is trying to pull off an operational and financial turnaround under difficult conditions, and extensive turnover of senior officers must make that task more difficult," said Standard & Poor's airline credit analyst Philip Baggaley.
In its effort to reduce costs, US Airways has cut the pay, benefits and bonuses of its employees. As a result, many talented managers and senior-level executives have left the carrier for better-paying positions at other airlines or have departed the tumultuous airline industry altogether.
In October, former chief financial officer David M. Davis resigned after less than six months to take a job with a chemical company. Davis had succeeded Neal S. Cohen, who had resigned in May. Before Davis resigned, he told a bankruptcy court that the airline had had trouble keeping executives because of low pay. More than 200 management-level employees left the airline during the first nine months of 2004, many of them taking higher-paying jobs at low-cost carriers.
