Benjamin Smith (executive)

Benjamin Smith (born August 27, 1971) is a Canadian businessman and airline executive.
He is presently CEO of Air France-KLM, a position that he has held since 2018. Prior to that, he was Air Canada’s President, Airlines and Chief Operating Officer.
Personal and education
Benjamin Smith was born on August 27, 1971 in the UK, of a mother from Hong Kong and an Australian father.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Western Ontario.
Aviation career
A life-long aviation enthusiast, he began his career in 1990 as a unionised ground Customer Sales and Service Agent at Air Ontario, a predecessor of Jazz and regional subsidiary of Air Canada Express, in parallel with his studies. In 1992, he left the airline to create a retail corporate travel agency, which he operated for eight years. Tango was the world’s first legacy-airline creation to successfully demonstrate the viability and feasibility of branded fares and fare debundling (dissociation of individual products and services from the base fare, such as seat selection, checked baggage, and mileage accrual, which are subsequently sold as ancillaries). Following the absorption of Tango into mainline Air Canada, Smith was appointed Vice President, Network Planning, within the company. He is described as the “driver of Air Canada’s commercial strategy” leading to the development of three hubs in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. He contributed to the transformation of the airline, including the purchase of new wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, as well as the first flagship North American order of the Airbus A220 (previously known as the Bombardier C-Series). Overall, he led a global network expansion resulting in links to more than 200 destinations on six continents, with a fleet of 350 aircraft. to be replaced by 38 Airbus A350 aircraft. He also oversaw the renewal of the narrowbody fleet with more environmentally friendly aircraft, with an order of 60 Airbus A220 aircraft to replace aging Airbus A318s and A319s.
In 2020, Smith announced the domestic deployment of Transavia France, previously limited to operating intra-European flights, following an agreement with the French pilot union permitting unrestricted growth of the fleet.

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