Musical chairs for all-cargo execs

When Robert van de Weg and Peter van de Pas resigned from their senior positions at Cargolux over disagreement with the Board’s decision to sell a 35% stake in the carrier to China-based HNCA, the air freight world was immediately awash in speculation about their respective futures. These were two of the most knowledgeable and respected people in the industry — who would be the lucky carrier or company that would land them?

Well, now we know: Both men have taken positions with Moscow-based Volga-Dnepr Group, parent of AirBridgeCargo, Cargolux’s main competitor in the all-cargo arena. Effective 1 May, Mr. van de Weg will become Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales, based in Luxembourg. He will also be responsible for centralizing the management of scheduled cargo sales, along with training and development of the Group’s global sales team.

Effective 1 April, Mr. van de Pas will become Senior Vice President Scheduled Operations to centralize Volga-Dnepr’s 747 and 737 fleet management, covering flight operations and maintenance activities, the development of hangar maintenance services, and building efficient management processes between AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Technics, the Group’s MRO division.

And there is more:

• Volga-Dnepr has promoted Wolfgang Meier from Senior Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing of AirBridgeCargo Airlines (the Group’s scheduled service all-cargo airline), to Group Vice President for Marketing & Development within the Group’s Managing Company.

• Matthew Ma, Cargolux’s vice-president Asia Pacific, has resigned. He had been with the company for 41 years.

• Ian Morgan, until recently President of US-based Centurion Cargo has joined Qatar Airways as Vice President Americas for Qatar Airways. Mr. Morgan, like Qatar Airways cargo boss Uli Ogiermann, and Robert van de Weg and Peter van de Pas, is a former Cargolux exec.

Our European editor, Alex Lennane, has provided some interesting background to this game of air freight musical chairs on her Loadstar blog. Click here to read what she has to say.