Leisure carrier Small Planet Airlines Poland has appointed Bartosz Czajka as a new chief executive officer (CEO) and member of the management board – succeeding Jarosław Jeschke – who resigned earlier this year due to health issues.
Czajka held a position of deputy CEO at Small Planet Airlines Poland since 11 June, 2018. He previously he worked at Star Alliance and LOT Polish Airlines where he held positions of director of charter and special operations and head of fleet strategy.
He said: “I am very pleased I have been granted the opportunity to take the lead of Small Planet Airlines in Poland. Management of an airline specializing in charter and wet-lease business is a difficult yet exciting challenge.
“I joined this team at a difficult moment – this Summer, the airline was experiencing major operational irregularities due to delayed delivery of aircraft and the lack of pilots on the market. However, the worst is already behind us, so we can direct all our efforts towards recovery.”
Czajka said the main challenges his team is going to face in the upcoming months are the high seasonality in the Polish charter market and increasing costs related to many factors, including continuously increasing payments under the EU261 directive.
He added: “A global shortage of pilots increased employment costs by more than 50% over the past 3 years. Moreover, compensations under the EU261 directive have increased almost three times. At the same time, the prices we offer to Polish tour operators and agencies remained almost untouched.
“To increase profitability of the company, we will have to optimize the current network of flights as well as re-balance increasing costs, which means that the pricing we are now offering to our clients will be reviewed.”0
