Another reshuffle at EgyptAir
Barely seven months into the job, the national carrier's new chairman has just stepped down. Amira Ibrahim tries to find out what's going on at EgyptAir
Abdel-Fatah Kato stepped down as the head of national carrier EgyptAir this week, just seven months after taking the company's top job in a major reshuffle. Although Kato's resignation was highly unexpected, no specific reason was given for the move.
An acting chairman -- Atef Abdel- Hamid -- was named to replace Kato until the company's general assembly ratifies the changes. Asaad Darwish, a pilot, was named as acting deputy chairman.
Abdel-Hamid had previously headed EgyptAir's maintenance company, while Darwish was in charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry's air navigation holding company.
Ministry officials said the reshuffle did not mean a change in policy for the national carrier. While Kato himself declined to comment on the reasons for his resignation, the Ministry's secretary- general, Major General Magdeddin Rifaat, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Kato "was not dismissed and his [resignation] should not be taken against him. It would appear as though personal reasons were behind the decision." Rifaat also said that, "Kato has done a very good job, which the minister appreciates."
The secretary-general indicated that the new management team would be carrying out the company's development plans for the coming period. EgyptAir, in fact, has been in the midst of a transformation of sorts for some time now. Besides a series of internal challenges within the company itself, global aviation as a whole has been suffering since the devastating events of 11 September.
The 7 May 2002 crash of an EgyptAir Boeing 737 in Tunisia, which resulted in the deaths of 14 passengers, was the catalyst for the sweeping changes that took place in the company's administrative corridors. The massive 70-year-old firm was turned into a holding company, with its different divisions distributed amongst seven independent, yet affiliated, companies. The changes took place under the auspices of a new aviation minister, Ahmed Shafiq, who had taken charge of the newly created Ministry in March. By June, the company's long-standing chief, Fahim Rayan, was out, replaced by Kato, a senior pilot who had previously been chairman of what was then a civil aviation authority.
Observers agree, however, that since Shafiq's appointment, every sector of the aviation industry, including the national carrier, had been managed hands-on via direct orders from the minister's office.
Abdel-Hamid -- the company's new chairman and a former head of a military airplane factory -- told the Weekly that the new management would be abiding by the framework agreed upon by the company's general assembly and approved by the minister.
"Although there will be no policy changes," he said, "we are going to be concentrating on the company's development, especially since we expect to face a rather challenging next few months." Abdel-Hamid's reference was to the negative effects for the company of a potential war in the Middle East.
In any case, said Abdel-Hamid, "We are committed to improving the performance of the airline, and all its companies, so that it meets international standards in every way." Amongst the areas where improvements were planned, he said, were in the quality of services being offered to customers -- things like "accurate scheduling of flights and superior customer service".
