Swissport restructures its organisation and announces Executive Management appointees

Zurich, January 31, 2006 – The Board of Directors and Executive Management of Swissport International have resolved to restructure the world’s leading aviation services group into five strategic business units effective April 1. The five units will comprise Ground Handling Europe, Asia, the Middle East & Africa (headed by Nigel Daniel), Ground Handling Switzerland & Germany (led by Urs Sieber), Ground Handling Americas (led by Richard van Bruygom), Cargo Services (headed by Ludwig Bertsch) and Emerging Businesses (headed by Erich Bodenmann). The heads of the five strategic business units will all sit on Executive Management. In a further move, Luis Pascual (who is with Swissport since October 2005) has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Clive Dolman.


In an industry as dynamic as the air transport sector, it is essential to identify trends early and realign resources and activities as swiftly as possible to new needs and developments. Acting on this principle, Swissport International has decided to restructure its organisation, moving away from its previous primarily geographical approach in favour of a business line-based structure. The new organisation will ensure a clearer assignment of responsibilities, accelerate decision-making processes and attach greater value to business development activities. In adopting it, Swissport aims not only to maintain but to further intensify its high growth rates of recent years.

The new organisation will permit cost savings by enhancing processes and making greater and more effective use of synergic potential. On the operational front and in the day-to-day ground handling business, the new structure is unlikely to result in any major personnel changes, ensuring that Swissport’s extensive expertise and its well-established customer contacts are both fully retained.

The heads of the new strategic business units will now restructure their own organisations over the next few weeks. Further details of these will be communicated in due course.

Luis Pascual has joined the world’s leading aviation services group to become its new Chief Financial Officer. Pascual was previously in charge of Corporate Controlling at the Spanish-based Ferrovial Group, where he not only played a major role in the company’s going public but also managed numerous merger and acquisition projects.

Sara Enriquez has also joined Swissport from Ferrovial Services. Enriquez, a former Mckinsey consultant, who has been responsible for various business development projects and has actively participated in the integration of Amey, will serve on Swissport Executive Management, assuming responsibility for Corporate Development.


And Elena Fernandez, who is currently active as Legal Counsel of Ferrovial Real Estate, moves to Swissport to become General Counsel & Head of Legal Affairs.

Swissport welcomes a further new member to its top executive team in Richard van Bruygom, who was previously with one of the company’s competitors. After an extensive induction period, van Bruygom will assume overall responsibility for Swissport’s ground handling in North, Central and South America.

Another appointment has been made to staff positions at the holding company. Augustin Gonzalez Hermosilla, currently HR Director of Ferrovial Services, will assume overall responsibility for Human Resources at the Swissport Group.

(Enclosed is the new Swissport organisational structure effective April 1, 2006.)

With a workforce of around 21 000 personnel, Swissport International Ltd. (which is owned by Ferrovial, a leading European infrastructure and service corporation based in Spain) provides ground services for over 70 million passengers and three million tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 600 client companies. Swissport is active at 174 airports in 40 countries on five continents, and generated consolidated revenues of around CHF 1.5 billion (EUR 950 million or USD 1.2 billion) last year.

Contact Information

Stephan Beerli

Media Contact

Swissport International Ltd.

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