THE travel trade can
expect to hear more
from Mango following
the appointment of Nico
Bezuidenhout as ceo. Nico’s
appointment is effective
October 1.
“One of my first priorities
upon returning to Mango will
be to engage actively with the
SA market, including the travel
trade, as I believe it to be an
important part of driving sales
for Mango,” says Nico.
He admits that during his
three-year tenure at fastjet,
he was relatively quiet in the
South African market.
He was previously ceo of
Mango for 13 years and left
in 2016 to join fastjet as
ceo, where he is still currently
employed.
“I’ve been at fastjet for
three years and had a specific
objective of stabilising the
airline. Mango has always
been close to my heart and
when I was asked to come
across and help make a
difference in its operations, I
was very interested,” he says.
As for fastjet, Nico believes
that while there is a lot of
work to be done, the airline
is in a better position than
before. He says it nearly
broke even during the first
quarter of the year, a time
when demand is normally
low. The Federal Air division
of the airline is profitable, the
Mozambique operations are
stabilising after a “difficult”
time and the codeshare with
LAM-Mozambique Airlines
has proved useful to fastjet,
he says.
Nico’s focus in his last
months at fastjet will be on
the airline’s operations in
Zimbabwe. He also plans
to focus on the exit out of
Tanzania, which still needs to
be concluded. In December
2018, fastjet suspended its
Tanzania operations a month
after a change in ownership of
the Tanzania subsidiary.
Current deputy group ceo
of fastjet, Mark Hurst, will be
the interim ceo, during which
time the airline will look for a
permanent appointment.
