Zander steps down
as Aloha’s CEO
The airline's president wants
to spend time with his ailing wife
Aloha Airlines President and Chief Executive Glenn Zander, who doubled the carrier's revenues and expanded service to North America and the Pacific during his 10 years with the company, announced yesterday he was stepping down to spend more time with his ailing wife.
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Brenda Cutwright, the airline's executive vice president and chief operating officer, has been named acting president and CEO. A search is under way to find Zander's replacement.
The changes will take effect Oct. 5.
Zander said he felt it was more important to be beside his wife, Gayle, who is undergoing cancer treatment in Georgia and has been battling the disease for three years.
"It was a very difficult decision," he said. "It is one where it became abundantly clear that I needed to spend an increasing amount of time away. And this is not a business where you can do that. This is a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job and it would not be fair for Aloha for me not to be doing that."
Zander proclaimed privately held Aloha to be in "OK" financial shape despite a net loss of $963,000 in the recently concluded second quarter. Revenues rose 10.1 percent in the quarter to $114.2 million from the same quarter last year.
"If you looked at it like a normal business, you'd say, 'Gosh, it could be better.' But if you look at it in terms of the airline industry, we're actually doing pretty well because the airline industry is in shambles," Zander said.
"US Airways has filed for bankruptcy again (its second in two years). There are rumors that American TransAir is going to file and rumors that Delta is going to file. Nobody's making any money."
Zander, who began his career at Aloha in May 1994, said the most exciting accomplishment in his 35 years in the airline industry was when Aloha began the transition from an interisland carrier to an airline serving trans-Pacific destinations. Aloha had its inaugural mainland flight from Oakland, Calif., to Honolulu on Feb. 14, 2000.
"Because of the size of the planes, we were able to open new markets to Hawaii such as Orange County, Burbank and Oakland," Zander said. "We changed the character of Aloha's company.
"When I first got to Aloha we had 1,800 employees and now we have 3,600 employees. That's happened during a period when airlines have entrenched and shrunk."
Aloha now has 27 planes in its fleet, including 13 for long-range flights, 11 for interisland service and three freighters for cargo flights.
Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum, who is piloting the competing carrier through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, praised Zander for what he has brought to the airline.
"Glenn Zander is an aviation executive of stature, an astute businessman and an honorable competitor," Gotbaum said in a statement. "He helped preserve Aloha as an airline, and for that both the people of Aloha and everyone in Hawaii should be grateful. We send Glenn and Gayle our aloha and wish them fair skies."
Zander nearly retired from Aloha in early 2002 when it appeared that the airline was going to merge with Hawaiian Airlines, but the deal fell through after Hawaiian Airlines sought a greater role in the merged company.
Zander said yesterday he believed the merger was the right thing to do at the time because it would have been good for the two companies as well as the state. "However, we have both subsequently moved on in our own direction and I don't think you'll see a repeat of that attempt again," he said.
Zander said he will have a say in the selection of the new president and CEO of Aloha because of his new position on the company's board. He said there will be a nationwide search, including candidates from both inside and outside the company, with the intent of securing a replacement by the end of the year.
Cutwright, the interim CEO and president, said she was saddened, but supportive of Zander's decision.
"I've worked along with Glenn for the past 10 years and therefore I anticipate there will be a very smooth transition," she said.
Han H. "Sonny" Ching, chairman of Aloha Airgroup, said he was pleased that Zander will remain with the company during challenging times. "We are also fortunate that Glenn has assembled a strong and experienced senior management team led by Brenda Cutwright to continue meeting the needs of all of Aloha's stakeholders," Ching said.
Zander, who obtained a $40 million loan guarantee for Aloha from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said he's convinced that the airline's business model works with its interisland market and niche cities on the West Coast.
"We've just got to work on getting the revenues-cost ratio a little better by bringing our costs down or getting our fares up," he said. "The (major airlines) have a broken business model so they have huge problems to deal with. Ours are relatively manageable by comparison."
www.alohaair.com/