Former a2 Milk and Jetstar boss Jayne Hrdlicka has been appointed to the board of Hawaiian Airlines.
She resigned abruptly late last year from a2 after just 17 months in the job. Before that she had been at Jetstar for five years during a growth phase but left the Qantas group after there appeared to limited opportunity to progress to the top job.
Hawaiian Airlines has with other carriers been hammered by the Covid-19 crisis and the company said it welcomed the perspective she would bring to the job.
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Michael McNamara, executive vice president and chief information officer of Target, also joined Hawaiian's board.
McNamara joined Target in 2015 and has overseen the transformation of the retailer's technology portfolio. Prior to joining Target, McNamara held positions of increasing authority with Tesco, a publicly traded international retailer headquartered in the UK.
"We welcome the additional experience and perspective both Jayne and Mike will bring to our board of directors, particularly as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic," said Larry Hershfield, chairman of the board of directors of Hawaiian.
"Jayne brings significant airline and international perspective to our company, while Mike adds deep expertise in technology with consumer-focused companies."
While at A2 she was based in Australia and after she announced her resignation from that company she said that with core markets in China and the United States there was more travel than anticipated when she joined the company.
"The board and I agreed that this next phase is going to be too difficult to manage alongside my other commitments while also managing the health and wellness priorities of my family and me," she said then.
She had been tipped this year as a contender for the top job at a re-born Virgin Australia but Paul Scurrah remains in that role.
Hrdlicka caused a stir soon after starting in a2 when she sold about 340,000 shares in a2 Milk for a total of around $4.3 million.
Hawaiian Airlines' capacity is running at about 15 per cent of what it was at this time last year.
It suffered a net loss of US$233m ($350m) in the second quarter, it announced today.
The airline has instituted a hiring freeze across the company, deferred non-critical capital spending, instituted voluntary unpaid leave programmes and is exploring involuntary headcount reduction and reduced executive pay by 10 per cent to 50 per cent.
"Our second-quarter results reflect the continued impact of Covid-19 and State of Hawaii quarantines on our business," said Peter Ingram, the airline's president and chief executive.