Betting on continuity: Fabián Lombardo moves up to become Aerolíneas Argentinas’ CEO

On December 26, the Business Board met at the corporate building offices of Aerolíneas Argentinas and resolved to appoint Fabián Lombardo as president of the same, who will also hold the position of General Manager of the airline, assuming the position left by Pablo Ceriani.

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Fabián Lombardo has a broad background in the commercial aviation industry: he began his professional career at Varig, where he held multiple executive positions including the management of its Pricing department, the direction of Revenue Management and Routes for South America, and the directorships of Italy and Middle East, Germany and Eastern Europe, and Chile, among others.

In all these cases, he performed his duties based in the mentioned countries. He also represented Tap Air Portugal and in 2009, after serving as director of international sales at Gol Linhas Aereas, he joined Aerolíneas Argentinas as International Sales Manager, later taking on the role of manager of the commercial area from 2013.

During Mauricio Macri’s presidential tenure, Lombardo left the argentinian carrier and later joined Azul Linhas Aereas; eventually taking up the position of Sales General Manager for South America.

In late 2019, after Alberto Fernandez victory on the presidential elections and the appointment of Ceriani as CEO, Lombardo returned to Aerolíneas Argentinas to lead its  Commercial Direction, Planning and Route Management department, from where he raised to become the national carrier’s new president.

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The decision seems to back the national carrier current management, as it has claimed to return to profit in 2023 with a 32 million dollar revenue for the current year. Argentina’s new president Javier Milei stated repeatedly during the campaign that he would either privatize or give the company to its employees for them to run it without governmental funding, and important changes in the aeronautical regulations are being pushed by a drecree that was signed just ten days after taking office.

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Lombardo’s tenure will have to face all those challenges and the economic impact of a steep peso devaluation that is yet to be fully translated to ticket prices and a subsequent drop in demand.

While it is too early to observe the consequences of such a challenging context, it is certain that Lombardo is an experienced executive that will have to bring his A-Game to pilot Aerolíneas Argentinas through turbulent times.