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On 4 June, SkyTeam announced that Andres Conesa, the current CEO of Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico, will be appointed the new chair of the alliance board.
The alliance officially endorsed the announcement atnce Board meeting a SkyTeam Allia this past weekend in Istanbul. There, the CEOs of all member airlines gathered to confirm the decision. Conesa will replace Walter Cho, the CEO and Chairman of Korean Air, who has served in the position since 2019.
Patrick Roux, who has served as SkyTeam's CEO since 2022, had the following to note regarding the departing Cho's tenure:
We would like to thank Walter for his tenure as SkyTeam CEO, during which he helped steer our alliance through the pandemic towards a future of greater sustainability for air travel.
Extensive qualifications
The alliance will be in good hands as Conesa led Aeromexico, a founding member of SkyTeam, for over a decade and a half and is prepared to take on the challenges of his new role.
The 53-year-old executive received a Ph.D. from MIT in Economics and was awarded both the Fulbright fellowship and the equally prestigious Ford MacArthur fellowship.
Roux will work closely with Conesa to help accomplish SkyTeam's long- and short-term initiatives. In a statement following the announcement of the Aeromexico CEO's appointment, Roux said the following:
Andrés will help guide our strategic focus as we chart a path to greater sustainability and industry-leading technology to strengthen our core promise of delivering a seamless customer experience.
The alliance has the utmost confidence in Conesa's qualifications and is prepared to hit the ground running to accomplish its goals.
A focus on sustainability
If it had not been clear from Roux's two statements above, SkyTeam sees its future as unequivocally tied to sustainability. Within the past year, the alliance has emphasized its sustainable flight initiative. Multiple member airlines, including Vietnam Airlines, have taken part in the initiative, a challenge in which participating carriers propose innovative ideas to decrease a flight's carbon footprint.
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Notably, in a statement following his appointment, Conesa also chose to highlight sustainability when describing the alliance's future development.
Our industry shares a common goal, and we must do our part to adhere to and implement best practices to bring the SkyTeam alliance to new heights, always customer-centric, technology-driven, and with a sustainable mindset.
A challenging situation
One difficult issue remains for SkyTeam to address, involving decisions that the alliance's newly appointed chairman Conesa will certainly be a part of. The Russian flag carrier, Aeroflot, which prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a full member of the SkyTeam alliance, has had its membership suspended.
In the coming years, Aeroflot's status will likely be revisited pending future developments in the war in Ukraine. Certainly, Conesa will play a key role in important decisions regarding whether the carrier will be able to rejoin the alliance in full or be permanently removed from the organization.