Air Inuit’s new president and CEO Christian Busch first joined the airline in 2002. (Photo courtesy of Air Inuit)
Air Inuit’s longtime VP moves into role of president, CEO
Christian Busch takes helm of Nunavik airline after 19 years
Air Inuit has a new president and chief executive officer.
Christian Busch, a longtime vice-president and chief operating officer at the Nunavik airline, was appointed to its top job as of April 1.
Busch takes the reins from the airline’s most recent president and CEO, Pita Aatami, now president of Makivik Corp.
Aatami retired from the airline, which is a Makivik subsidiary, last year to launch his election campaign.
Busch first joined Air Inuit in 2002.
The airline’s board of directors said Busch’s 19 years of experience in northern aviation comes as a major asset.
“His proven success in building long-term relationships with Nunavimmiut, our stakeholders, customers, and regulators hasn’t gone unnoticed,” said Air Inuit board chairperson Noah Tayara in a Tuesday news release.
“Over the years he has played a big role in growing and innovating the business, and most importantly his recognition of our dedicated employees makes him the best choice to lead Air Inuit.”
Air Inuit was founded in 1978 to serve Nunavik’s 14 communities with a single de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver aircraft.
Today, the airline’s fleet includes Boeing 737s, de Havilland Dash-8-300s and freighters, Twin Otters, a Beechcraft Super King and a Turbo Otter.
Correct me if Iicam wrong lol but they have more planes than that LOL
Air Inuit’s fleet is composed of:
4 Boeing 737, 7 Dash8-300, 3 Dash8-300 freighters, 2 Dash8-100, 7 Twin Otters, 3 King Air 350.
Why is this newsworthy?
To break the hearts of everyone else who applied.
There is very little “open” competition for jobs at the top. The Board of Directors usually have someone selected before the incumbent leaves, or a headhunter is called to find likely candidates.
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It is however nice to see that they went with someone internal and someone who has grown up with the company and corporate culture.
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Christian will also know the people to deal with in the various communities & organizations and this helps a lot in providing the level of service needed. Not to mention that the last year has been the toughest ever in aviation. He certainly has his work cut out for him and the company.
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Good luck Christian and I know that you will do your very best.
STOP BROWN NOSING
I’ve no reason to “brown nose” as I’ve been retired for quite some time and have no current (or future) interest in aviation.
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Whilst I did have a few dealings with Christian many years ago we usually did not see eye to eye. That does not however mean that I don’t think highly of him, and that I’m glad that Air Inuit promoted from within.
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I do sincerely wish him all the best.
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I’ve seen what it’s like to be responsible for running an airline. It’s not only trying to keep your shareholder happy, or your staff employed, it’s about providing a high level of service to all of your very demanding customers. And aviation has the added pressure of magnifying any mistakes, often in a very serious and tragic manner.
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It’s a lot of responsibility and it wears on you every single day. Luckily there are compensations, the people you work with, knowing that you are helping people, and in this case a whole region.
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It is very easy to complain but we all should also offer encouragement and recognize those that work hard to provide the services we all depend upon in our every day lives.
Thank you, Air Inuit b.o.d., for making the right choice. I trust Mr. Busch will be fair and give equal treatment.
We were on pins and needles with our fingers crossed waiting for bad news but this is wonderful!
Good luck and welcome to serving us numavimmiut.
Christian, we’ve aged since the first day I met you. Congratulations! My strong feeling is that you will run it.
Congratulations and thank you for having been there for us since a long while now. I bet we also had other good candidates, the point is that you were selected for your qualifications and dedication, and these are comforting reasons.
Promoting from within rewards those working hard, parachuting in another politician isn’t the best move. I’m sure Christian is relieved too, politicians don’t make the best CEO’s or COO’s, promote from within, leave the politicians out of it, they don’t make the best business decisions and depend a lot on the real experts.