Business Talk – Former Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond reveals the real reasons the company failed

In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, former Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond discusses his book “Crash and Burn – a CEO’s crazy adventures in the airline industry”.

Orsmond is one of the most prominent aviation executives in South Africa, having served as CEO of Comair on two occasions.

Orsmond was also the founder and CEO of 1time, and prior to this worked at Sun Air.

Thanks to the lessons learnt in these roles, Orsmond is uniquely positioned to speak about the biggest issues which have plagued South Africa’s airline industry – particularly those at Comair and its low-cost airline Kulula.

The interview

In the interview, Orsmond discusses several key topics from his book.

He begins by talking about the major issues he encountered at Comair during his multiple stints in leadership positions.

This includes the regular butting of heads between management and the pilots – who had become powerful decision-makers.

When he arrived for his second stint at Comair, for example, the pilots were flying about 60 hours a month compared to the Safair pilots’ 85 hours a month – yet the Comair pilots were earning 30-40% more money.

Furthermore, Orsmond says the pilot body was a driving force behind Comair’s decision to buy new Boeing aircraft—despite “not even generating sufficient profits to pay the interest on the deal.”

Lessons learned

Orsmond then discusses the lessons he learnt at Comair.

He says that when shareholder issues translate into boardroom squabbles, this will ultimately lead a business down a path to destruction.

Orsmond also explains that one of the worst things a business can have is high levels of inertia within the management team.

A major cause of this inertia at Comair was its project management system, which he referred to as “a bottomless pit” when it came to approving and implementing new projects and growth initiatives.

This resulted in Comair running on legacy systems and not having simple technologies like a smartphone app or support for online check-ins.

Meanwhile, competing airlines like Safair had embraced newer technologies and were leaving Comair in its dust.

Orsmond concludes the interview by talking about the future of South Africa’s airline industry.

He says he’s positive about SAA’s future, and believes there is space for another player in the local airline industry.

Watch the full interview with Glenn Orsmond below.