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Jean-Paul Herteman, Chairman of the Safran group, was elected Chairman at the annual general meeting of the French aerospace industries association Gifas, held on 9 July 2009. Jean-Paul Herteman succeeds Charles Edelstenne, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, who was elected in 2005 and whose mandate came to its statutory end this year.

Continental Airlines reported that Jeff Smisek, Continental’s president and chief operating officer and a member of the board of directors, will become chairman and chief executive officer, effective January 1, 2010. Smisek will succeed Larry Kellner who has decided to return to private equity at year-end after 14 years with Continental, the last five of

In a meeting held on July 9th, Iberia

Hartmut Mehdorn has been appointed as a new Non-Executive Director to the board of Air Berlin PLC. He will be taking over the position vacated by Claus W

Stefan Lauer, CEO Group Airlines and Corporate Human Resources at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has been appointed with effect from 1 July 2009 as Chairman of the Board of Directors of British Midland PLC (bmi). He will take over the position from Sir Michael Bishop who is leaving the Board. Also J

Polar Air Cargo Worldwide released that former DHL Express executive Thomas Murphy has been named Chief Operating Officer for Polar, succeeding Randy Clark. DHL is a 49% stakeholder (with a 25% voting stake) in Polar with Polar

Jet Aviation announces the appointment of Ian Ludlow as new managing director of the company’s Moscow Vnukovo maintenance operation effective August 1, 2009. He will succeed Carsten Fimm, who served as station manager of Jet Aviation Vnukovo on an interim assignment since August 2008.

Mark S. Long, a veteran aviation finance executive with over 20 years experience in the aviation industry including senior roles at Northwest Airlines, has been named chief financial officer of XOJET, a leading private aviation company. Immediately prior to joining XOJET, Mr. Long was a managing director at Skyworks Capital, LLC, a global investment banking

MTU Maintenance Hannover has a new president and CEO. Martin Funk has taken over the reigns from Uwe Bl

GE Capital Aviation Services, a division of GE, announced the promotion of Norman C.T. Liu to president and chief executive officer of GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). Liu will take over the executive management of the business from Henry A. Hubschman who will take on the new role of chairman of GECAS. Liu and Hubschman