Air Malta in search for new chief commercial officer

Air Malta is seeking to appoint a new Chief Commercial Officer, the national airline announced in a statement.

Ursula Silling, the present CCO, was engaged by the airline specifically to lead "innovative commercial developments". The national airline said that, through her direction over the last 18 months, Air Malta has become "a more dynamic, commercially driven and customer-focused airline".

Silling will be leaving her post at the end of the month but will however continue supporting the airline in the interim period and with future projects. She joined Air Malta in February 2015 for a definite period until March 2016 but her contract was extended to ensure the realisation of a number of key projects.

“Ursula has brought radical change in the thinking and the running of the Commercial Division," Joseph Galea, Air Malta’s Acting CEO, said.

In the interim perio, Galea, who was until recently the Deputy Chief Commercial Officer, will be overseeing the running of the commercial division.

"Through her resourcefulness she has spearheaded the digital transformation of the airline with projects like the re-design of the website with its mobile friendly features, fronted the airline’s digital communication and promotional initiatives, and directed customer-focused investments in new technology within commercial. She has also been instrumental in reducing costs by fine- tuning Air Malta’s route network in conjunction with the airline’s fleet plan initiative."

Galea said Silling drove a radical transformation of Air Malta’s product offering, with the launch of the new product range that gives customers a choice of three tiers in Economy and three tiers in Business class. "This was a very important development and a significant milestone for Air Malta,” he said.

Before joining Air Malta, Silling worked with both low cost and network airlines, IT systems providers and tour operators in different countries and held senior executive management positions with Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Express, Brussels Airlines, the TUI group and Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines.

“I feel privileged to have worked and assisted the airline as Chief Commercial Officer in these challenging times and ever changing aviation environment. In these last few years we have accomplished so much by being innovative, resourceful and flexible whilst reducing our costs. With the launch of our “We Care More” campaign we have actively demonstrated our commitment to put the customer at the heart of everything we do. I am proud of the accomplishments of the whole team and look forward to continue working with them to achieve further milestones,” she said.