Benjamin Smith (born 27 August 1971) is a British-born Canadian businessman and airline executive. He has been the CEO of

Air France-KLM An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmospher ...

since 2018. Prior to that, he was

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

's President and Chief Operating Officer.

Personal life and education

Benjamin Smith was born on 27 August 1971 in the UK. He holds a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in economics from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

. He lives in Paris with his family.

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 Air Ontario Inc. was a Canadian regional airline with its predecessor ( Great Lakes Airlines) initially headquartered in Sarnia and later in London, Ontario. In 2002, Air Ontario became Air Canada Jazz. History Great Lakes Airlines, the pre ...

, a regional airline subsidiary of

, in parallel with his studies. In 1992 he left the airline to open a retail corporate travel agency, which he operated for eight years.

Air Canada

In 1999, he worked as a consultant before rejoining

. As managing director of

Air Canada Tango Air Canada Tango was a low-cost subsidiary branch of Air Canada, which was established in 2001 to offer no-frills service on some of Air Canada's routes and to reduce operating costs at the struggling main company. Based in Toronto, Tango opera ...

, he was responsible for writing the business plan and successfully launching this new low-cost subsidiary, with 21 aircraft transferred from Air Canada. In 2001, Tango introduced a new commercial model: the subsidiary offered a blend of low-cost and full-service products and services which proved successful. In 2004, the Tango model was rolled out across Air Canada's entire North American network. The Tango operation was absorbed into the mainline carrier with the brand Tango kept as Air Canada's base fare under the new commercial model developed at Tango. Subsequently, Smith was appointed vice president, Network Planning, within Air Canada. In 2007, Smith was appointed to the Air Canada executive management team as Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for Network Planning, Revenue Management, Marketing (including brand management, customer experience, and loyalty), Cargo, Alliances, and Global Sales. He is described as the "driver of Air Canada's commercial strategy" leading to the development of three global hubs in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. He contributed to the transformation of the airline, including the purchase of a new large fleet of wide-body and narrow-body aircraft. Overall, he led a global network expansion resulting in links to more than 200 destinations on six continents, with a fleet of 350 aircraft. In 2013, he launched the low-cost company

Air Canada Rouge Air Canada Rouge (''Rouge'' meaning 'red' in French) is a subsidiary of Air Canada focused on operating lower-cost flights for leisure travellers. It is fully integrated into the Air Canada mainline and Air Canada Express networks; flights ar ...

. In 2014, he was the chief negotiator with the airline's pilot and cabin crew unions which resulted in landmark 10-year collective agreements. In the same year, he was appointed president, Airlines (

, Rouge,

Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

and

Cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

) and Chief Operating Officer of Air Canada. During his tenure, the airline's profitability grew by over twenty-fold and Air Canada was awarded the

Skytrax Skytrax (originally known as Inflight Research Services) is a United Kingdom–based consultancy headquartered in London that runs an airline and airport review website. Services Skytrax conducts research for commercial airlines, as well as t ...

Best Airline in North America seven times.

Air France-KLM

The

Air France–KLM Air France–KLM S.A., also known as Air France–KLM Group, is a French-Dutch multinational airline holding company with its headquarters in the rue du Cirque, Paris, France. The group’s three major brands are Air France, KLM and Transavia ...

Group Board of Directors appointed Smith as the new Group's CEO on 16 August 2018, the first non-French chief executive in the company's history. Smith achieved in a few months labor stability at Air France after years of internal conflict. He embarked on a Group-wide fleet modernization program which saw the retirement of Air France and KLM's

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

and

Airbus A340 The Airbus A340 is a long-haul, long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the Airbus A300, A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 qu ...

aircraft, replacing them with

Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a flight length, long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbu ...

s and Boeing 787s. In 2019, a new agreement with Air France's pilot union removed the fleet size and geographical restrictions on the Group's low-cost subsidiary

Transavia Transavia Airlines C.V., trading as Transavia and formerly branded as ''transavia.com'', is a Dutch low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM and therefore part of the Air France–KLM group. Its main base is Amsterdam Airport Sch ...

. A large fleet order of Airbus A320neos was subsequently placed to embark on an ambitious growth strategy. Smith successfully navigated the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

crisis. Billions of euros in stabilizing direct and guaranteed loans by the French and Dutch States were used to ensure the survivability of the Group. The loans have now been fully repaid. Smith appointed new CEOs at the group's two major subsidiaries which has led to an improvement of synergies. On 31 March 2022, the Board of Directors of Air France-KLM renewed his contract as CEO for a further five years.

Westjet

On 6 September 2023, WestJet appointed Smith as non-executive vice-chair of the Board.

Recognition

Smith was made a Knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(France) in July 2023.

References

External links

*
Profile at Air France-KLM website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Benjamin 1971 births Living people Canadian airline chief executives University of Western Ontario alumni Air France–KLM Canadian expatriates in France British emigrants to Canada British people of Hong Kong descent British people of Australian descent Canadian people of Hong Kong descent Canadian people of Australian descent Knights of the Legion of Honour