KLM very concerned about parent company's course: report
Executives of Dutch airline KLM are very concerned about the direction parent company Air France-KLM is taking, they wrote in a letter to the Air France-KLM executive board. They are particularly concerned about the imminent departure of KLM CEO Pieter Elbers, whose term is almost up, and call for him to be reappointed, ANP reports based on the letter, which is in the news wire's possession.
The executives fear that if Elbers is forced to leave, it will cause turmoil or even protest actions from staff in the Dutch airline. According to them, KLM took many major steps under Elbers in recent years, resulting in profit margins clearly improving and more investments being made. KLM's works council and supervisory board, and the Dutch government all support a reappointment for Elbers.
The KLM top managers also criticize the behavior of Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM. According to them, Smith does not comply with previous agreements about operations and policy and acts too much on his own. They also blame the leadership of the airline combination of a lack of vision about the role of the various companies in Air France-KLM, among other things.
