Former Air Serbia CEO moves on to new post

NEWS FLASH

The former CEO of Air Serbia, Duncan Naysmith, has become the Chief Financial Officer at Qatar Airways. Mr Naysmith held the same post at Alitalia and later Air Serbia, before he was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer following the resignation of Dane Kondić. Mr Naysmith joined Air Serbia in 2017. Apart from running the airline’s finances he was also tasked to lead the carrier’s transformation from a full fare legacy carrier to a hybrid airline. During his tenure, Air Serbia significantly cut back on costs, while reporting its three best performing end-of-year results in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Mr Naysmith resigned at the end of last year to take on the new role at Qatar Airways where he has been for the past few months. The Qatar Airways Group reported a record net profit of 1.54 billion US dollars during the fiscal year 2021/22. The strong results were achieved as the airline became the largest international carrier during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the blockade of Qatar was lifted by Gulf neighbours, which saw the return of some of the carrier’s busiest routes, while the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be played in Qatar in November and December, is also having a positive impact on the airline’s finances.