Air Pacific Board Announces New Airline CEO
The Chairman of Air Pacific Limited, Mr. Nalin Patel, announced today that Dave Pflieger will become the CEO and Managing Director of Air Pacific effective May 1, 2010, upon the retirement of John Campbell.
Mr. Patel said Mr. Pflieger is a proven business leader and industry executive with broad experience at a large international airline as well as two new low-cost carriers (see biography).
Mr. Pflieger is currently a Senior Vice President at Virgin America, an industry leading low-cost carrier that has been named “Best Domestic Airline” in the United States by both Condé Nast and Travel + Leisure magazine for each of its two years of existence.
Mr. Patel said that the Board was extremely pleased that the Company would be led by someone who played such key roles in building and launching two successful low-cost carriers.
“We believe Dave is the perfect person to lead Air Pacific during what is already a highly challenging period in our history.” He will have the full support of the Board and our experienced management team.
Mr. Patel also thanked and praised John Campbell for his leadership and stewardship of Air Pacific over the past nine years.
Mr. Patel noted that Mr. Campbell and Mr. Pflieger were planning a transition period over the latter half of April.
Biography - Dave Pflieger
Born in Seoul, Korea, Dave is 47 years old and has 25 years of aviation industry experience as a business executive, attorney, and pilot.
Dave joined Virgin America as a founding officer in 2004. At Virgin America, Dave has served as General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Legal, Government Affairs & Sustainability and Vice President of the Operations Control Center. In the early days of Virgin America, he created the overall plan to stand up and launch the airline. Later, he led the company's heavily contested two-year effort in Washington, D.C. to obtain government certification as a U.S. airline. Dave also has been heavily involved with Board and shareholder matters, and he recently won government approval for the company’s new capital ownership structure, enabling the airline to continue flying. Dave is also a Virgin America A319/320 Captain, and he piloted the airline’s inaugural flight from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco.
Prior to joining Virgin America, Dave was the Vice President of Operations for Delta Air Lines' low-cost airline subsidiary, Song, which operated thirty-six 757 aircraft and flew seven million passengers per year. Prior to joining Song’s management team, Dave was Delta’s Director of Flight Safety, and the company's Chief Operations Attorney. While in these various roles, Dave also flew the line as a 767, 757, and 737 pilot and was a member of Delta’s Flight Operations and Technical Operations senior staffs.
Dave was invited to join Delta from King & Spalding, a top U.S. law firm. Before becoming an attorney, Dave was a B-52 instructor pilot in the U.S. Air Force. He graduated with a bachelor's of science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and earned a law degree (with distinction) and an MBA from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dave is also a graduate of the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety Program.