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Christoph Franz: Lufthansa has announced that Christoph Franz will succeed Wolfgang Mayrhuber as the German carrier's group chairman and chief executive. Mr. Franz, who is currently Lufthansa's deputy chairman, will assume his new role on 1st January. Lufthansa is also promoting the head of its cargo unit, Carsten Spohr, to head up its German airline division.

Noel Donnelly: Normally this section deals with prominent figures in the military and in the aviation industry but we would like to add our tribute to Noel Donnelly (55), the Irish Coast Guard’s longest serving and most experienced air-sea rescue crew member who is retiring after more than 30 years’ service. He completed his last shift as winchman and paramedic at the Sligo Coast Guard search and rescue base at the end of November. Originally from Tyrone, he began his career with the Air Corps, flying in the iconic Alouette III and later on the leased Puma helicopter. He left the Air Corps in 1984 but did not immediately go back to marine rescue working instead as a diver with a civil engineering firm in Aberdeen, Scotland, and subsequently as an ambulance driver in Co. Kildare. He became one the first Coast Guard crew members stationed at Shannon and was involved in a number of high profile rescues. Irish Coast Guard director Chris Reynolds described Mr Donnelly as “one of the pioneers of dedicated helicopter search and rescue” in Ireland.

Rickard Gustafson: SAS Scandinavian Airlines has appointed 46 year old Rickard Gustafson as the new President and CEO with effect from 1st February. He comes from an insurance and financial background and joins SAS from a position as CEO of the insurance company Codan/Trygg Hansa. The previous President and CEO, Mats Jansson, left his position on 1st October and since then Deputy CEO, John Dueholm, has been acting President and CEO. He will continue in this role until Mr. Gustafson takes over.

Martin Moroney: Shannon airport director Martin Moroney has retired from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) after 31 years of service with the group. He started his career with Aer Rianta International and rose to become its business development manager before transferring in 1996 to the then Aer Rianta as Shannon airport general manager of traffic marketing and served as director since 2002. During his eight years at the helm, he steered the airport though a number of business challenges and policy changes. His replacement is the airport’s head of finance and corporate affairs Mary Considine who joined the company in 1990. Ms Considine has worked in various financial and marketing roles within Shannon Airport during the past two decades, and qualified as a Certified Public Accountant in 1992. She assumes the role at a time of plummeting passenger numbers at Shannon exacerbated some believe from the expiry earlier this year of a five-year deal with Ryanair on charges and passenger numbers.