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Robert J. Kokonis
President & Managing Director
Robert Kokonis is a co-founder of AirTrav Inc. He has 20 years of leadership experience
in the airline and travel sectors, acquired with three
airlines including Air Canada, global travel management
firm Carlson Wagonlit Travel®, and Worldspan®,
a global distribution system ("GDS")
who counts online travel giant Expedia®
amongst its customers.
Mr. Kokonis led business planning and investment search for a start-up airline and was recruited as CEO to build and finance CharterHub Inc., an e-Commerce travel technology firm. His work has taken him across North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, the Mideast and South Pacific.
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Mr.
Kokonis' varied background has transcended ATC and airport charges, business
process redesign, change management, collective bargaining, consulting, corporate communications, e-Commerce, finance, fuel hedging and supply management, government relations, Internet and traditional product distribution, marketing, operational benchmarking and forecasting, sales and supplier procurement functions.
Under the guidance of Mr. Kokonis and his diverse corporate-entrepreneurial
experience, AirTrav Inc. is well equipped to address
strategic and tactical issues faced by airlines, aviation
firms, airports, travel agencies and corporate travel
departments in today's fiercely competitive environment.
Given the dynamic nature of the aviation and travel
sectors, AirTrav can help position its customers effectively
in an environment that will continue to experience rapid
transformation and restructuring.
Extensive Industry Network
Mr. Kokonis possesses broad senior airline, travel industry
and government contacts in Canada and abroad. He has been consulted by several branches
of government such as the Canadian Transportation Agency,
Competition Bureau and Transport Canada on a variety
of legislative and regulatory matters.
Internationally, he has worked
with the Federal Aviation Administration and several local airport port authorities in the United
States, EuroControl, the pan-European air traffic
control agency situated in Belgium and various Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA's).
Frequent Media Commentary
An acknowledged airline authority, Mr. Kokonis appears regularly on national TV including CBC Newsworld, CTV News Channel, BNN, CNN Money, Global TV and CHCH News; in major dailies like Financial Post, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and USA Today; Canadian Business and Maclean's; with newswire providers Thomson-Reuters, Associated Press and The Canadian Press; plus on national and local radio.
His quotes on the airline and travel sectors have covered financial results, financing issues, stock valuations, asset monetization strategies, capacity purchase agreements, commercial strategies, distribution channels, fuel hedging and surcharges, incident analysis, operational performance, MRO outsourcing, labour issues; aircraft OEM issues; airport cost control, new airline entrant issues and security; Air Service Agreements and Open Skies pacts; and leisure issues related to tour operators and tourism.
Mr. Kokonis has addressed the Canadian Airline Investment Conference, the Aircraft Commerce Flight Ops Conference, National Business Travel Association Conference, and Aviation Today webinars. He has delivered lectures to the Euromoney-Airfinance Journal New York School of International Aviation Finance, HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland and to Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, speaking on airline management topics, risk management-hedging and aircraft emissions.
Mr. Kokonis holds an International M.B.A. degree (Honours Finance)
from the Helsinki School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland
and a B.A. from The University of Western Ontario in
London, Canada. A native of Ottawa, Mr. Kokonis currently
resides near Toronto, Ontario, Canada with his wife and children.
 
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