A senior airline executive with almost 30 years’ experience has been named as group chief executive of the Monarch group of companies.
Emirates Airline UK and Ireland vice-president Conrad Clifford is to join the airline and Cosmos tour operating company, which has more than 3,000 employees, on December 1.
He joined Emirates last year from Virgin Nigeria Airways, which he helped establish and was chief executive of for four years.
Clifford began his aviation career as a trainee with Cathay Pacific before joining Virgin Atlantic where he rose to become commercial director.
He was then commercial director at Menzies Aviation Group in 2002, rising to become Asia, South Pacific and Africa director.
Monarch executive chairman Iain Rawlinson said: “This appointment concludes the initial stage of the ongoing programme of transformation and renewal of the Monarch Group that has been underway since the beginning of this year.
“The group is now in a strong position to develop all its core activities and to continue the rebuilding of margins and the development of its well established travel brands.
“Conrad’s wealth of industry experience and strong track record of leadership make him ideally suited to lead Monarch through the next exciting stage of its development.”
On behalf of the shareholders, Fabio Mantegazza added: “We welcome this appointment, which marks an important step in positioning our group for the next phase in its long history.”
Clifford said: “I am delighted to be joining Monarch. It has a fantastic history, strong brands and a great future ahead of it. I am looking forward to working closely with the team to help Monarch fulfil its potential.”