Airline appoints acting CEO
Tahawar Durrani has been appointed as the acting chief executive officer of Air Niugini, following the retirement of Simon Foo on March 30.
Durrani, an Australian citizen, has been employed by Air Niugini since July 2005. Since December 2014, he has been general manager of airline operations, essentially the chief operating officer.
He holds a bachelor of aeronautical engineering, a masters in business administration majoring in finance, and a masters in information technology.
“Since being with Air Niugini, he has demonstrated great leadership capacity and has implemented many good initiatives,” the chairman of the Air Niugini board, Sir Frederick Reiher, said. “He has shown himself to be an effective team builder and a motivator of staff.”
Durrani has built capacity in the engineering department, enabling heavy maintenance of Dash 8 and Fokker aircraft to be brought back to Port Moresby from overseas.
A statement from the board refers to him as a hands-on leader who makes himself available 24/ 7 to fix problems.
The Air Niugini board has full confidence in his leadership, Sir Frederick said.
Air Niugini has also recently appointed two executive managers to lead the airline’s information technology (IT) and customer affairs departments.
Wendy Henao has been appointed to the IT position after being with the department for 29 years. Peter Dokta has taken over the customer affairs department after being with the airline for 14 years.
He has shown himself to be an effective team builder and a motivator of staff.