Arrived at the head of the Air France group in September 2018, Ben Smith saw his mandate renewed in March 2022 for a period of five years. Here inside a company aircraft. Elodie Gregoire
DECRYPTION – Thanks to his negotiating skills and his flair, this boss rearmed his group for the end of the crisis.
At the end of January, in the sumptuous Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, it was a confident and smiling Ben Smith who presented his wishes on behalf of Air France-KLM. In impeccable French, the general manager of the company shows his confidence: “Our activity in 2023 will be almost at the same level as in 2019”, he says. Nothing to do with Ben Smith borrowed and hesitant in the language of Molière during the same exercise, at the beginning of 2020. Because if the Canadian took the lead of the group in September 2018, it is to the test of the pandemic that he really showed up.
“He did a hell of a job. says Yann Derocles, financial analyst at Oddo. There are no more questions about its legitimacy. Moreover, his mandate at the head of the binational group was renewed in advance in March 2022 for five years. And the annual results that this fifty-something presents this Friday confirm the return to better fortune of Air France-KLM.
Our activity in 2023 will be almost at the same level as in 2019
Ben Smith
The company is indeed largely back in the green in 2022, after two years…
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