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EUROPE Winner...
CHRISTINE OURMIÈRES Ireland
CEO of CityJet ABOUT CHRISTINE OURMIÈRES
Christine Ourmières began her career in aviation over 20 years ago at Air France where she held a variety of key management positions.
She began her career as a manager in the Air France hanger at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, overseeing maintenance on a variety of aircraft of the fleet, including the supersonic Concorde. In her position, she was the only female manager in the hangar at the time. From there, she moved towards the commercial side, where in the early 1990s, she held the position of Commercial Director of France, for Air France’s Global Distribution System, Amadeus. From 1998 to 2001 she took on the role of Vice President of Air France Global Sales and her success in this role led to her promotion to Vice President of International Sales in 2002.
In 2005, Christine was promoted to General Manager, Air France-KLM, UK and Ireland, a post she held for 3 years and where she oversaw increases in sales, year on year passenger growth and UK market share growth. She gained in-depth knowledge of the operational aspects of the airport as also being the Director of the handling company
at Heathrow airport for the airline group.
Following her success in the UK market, in 2008 Christine became the first ever Vice President-General Manager of Air France-KLM, USA. During her tenure in the United States, she was responsible for the largest market outside of France and Amsterdam for the airline Group – representing a turnover of $1.6 billion – and overseeing 14 airports across the country. In just over one year, she built a new streamlined organisation and vision to support the Joint Venture with Delta Air Lines, which was and still is today the largest in the aviation industry. This included managing the integration of the Air France and KLM teams, over 700 strrong, across the USA, so as to streamline their strengths and support the goals of the Joint Venture.
In September 2010, Christine was appointed to the position of CEO of CityJet, becoming the first female CEO of an Irish licensed airline, and only 1 out of 15 female CEOs of commercial airlines, of which there are overall.
CityJet is renowned for providing convenient, hassle-free travel,
combined with award-winning service to popular destinations throughout the UK and Europe. Its extensive network offers a multitude of choices for both business and leisure travellers, with a schedule built around the needs of passengers.
As one of the largest carriers operating out of London City Airport, CityJet offers over 900 flights a week, over 300 of them from this conveniently- located airport.
CityJet operates
to multiple destinations in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe from London City Airport, Cambridge Airport and Cardiff Airport. Additionally, CityJet operates from Charles de Gaulle airport to various European destinations on behalf of Air France.
In her position as CEO, Christine is responsible for the entire operations of the company, including network, distribution, finance, marketing and communications, quality assurance and airport operations to name a few. Since taking over her position, she has undertaken a number of cost-cutting measures, notably, she has introduced an aircraft utilisation programme which has seen the introduction of a number of new
destinations to the airline’s network which has expanded across Europe whilst ensuring schedules meet the needs of CityJet’s audience.
Most recently, she spearheaded the sale process of CityJet from Air France KLM to INTRO Aviation so as to become a fully independent regional airline. As part of this new independence, Christine oversaw the major project of introducing the airline’s own operating code, WX, in order for the company to have full control of its commercial and operational business, allowing it to be more dynamic and responsive to customer and trade needs.
As a major step of being an independent airline, Christine is currently steering the re-brand for the airline. This rebrand will include not only a new logo, but an overhaul in design and personality, from the livery to the website to uniforms to language, so that it will better reflect who CityJet is. The new CityJet will be unveiled in September.
Ms. Ourmières-Widener holds a Master of Aeronautics degree from the Ecole National Supérieure d’Ingénieurs and an MBA from Essec Business School.
FINANCE MONTHLY CEO AWARDS 2014
Christine Ourmières, CEO of CityJet Website: www.cityjet.com