but the losses and uncertainty around its
future were short-lived. Working alongside
Dr. Friesen, van der Stege and his team
have overseen the implementation of the
transformation.
“The beauty of First Air is that we have
a very loyal, a very dedicated workforce.
Lots of people wanting to work very hard
and making a real difference in the day-to-
day life of our customers’ experience, ev-
ery single day,” van der Stege said.
By 2014, the company admitted that the
business model they had was simply too
complex. For example, having certain types
of aircraft didn’t make economic sense,
van der Stege said, and this consequently
led to inefficiencies and the elimination of
several types of aircraft to improve its cost
base.
The year 2014 emerged as the year of
change, and consequently, First Air en-
joyed a profitable 2015 and a positive cash
“The beauty of First Air is that we have a very loyal, a very dedicatedworkforce.
Lots of people wanting to work very hard and making a real difference in the
day-to-day life of our customers’ experience, every single day. ”
Bert van der Stege, Vice President Commercial
MAY 2016
H
business elite canada 17
