Mark Darby
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Robin Mark Darby (known as Mark Darby) (born 1959) was a British airline executive having now retired in December 2020. He was the former CEO of
Aurigny Air Services Aurigny Air Services Limited (pronounced ), commonly known as Aurigny, is the flag carrier airline of the Bailiwick of Guernsey with its head office next to Guernsey Airport in the Channel Islands, and wholly owned by the States of Guernsey ...
, having previously been CEO of Baboo,
LIAT LIAT (1974) Ltd, also known as Leeward Islands Air Transport Services and operating as LIAT, is a regional airline headquartered in Antigua and Barbuda that operated high-frequency inter-island scheduled services to 15 destinations in the Caribb ...
and Head of Aviation Consulting at
Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
.


Early life and career

Darby attended
Hurstpierpoint College (''Blessed are the pure in heart'') , established = , closed = , type = Public SchoolIndependent School , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Dominic Mo ...
,
King's School, Rochester The King's School, Rochester, is an English independent school in Rochester, Kent. It is a cathedral school and, being part of the foundation of Rochester Cathedral, the Dean of Rochester serves as chair of the school's governing body. The sch ...
and the
University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...
. Between
Laker Airways Laker Airways was a private British airline founded by Sir Freddie Laker in 1966. It was originally a charter airline flying passengers and cargo worldwide. Its head office was located at Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England. It became the seco ...
as a planning engineer before moving to fulfil the same position at
British Caledonian British Caledonian (BCal) was a British private independent airline which operated out of Gatwick Airport in south-east England during the 1970s and 1980s. It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlin ...
in 1984. Subsequently, he moved to
British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...
in 1988 and a year later became Director Technical Services at Simat, Helliesen & Eichner Inc. (SH&E). In 1996, Darby joined
Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
as Head of Aviation Consulting. He moved to
IBM Global Services IBM Consulting, rebranded in 2021 from IBM Global Business Services, is the professional services and consulting arm of IBM. IBM Consulting provides services to companies, global government organizations, non-profits and NGOs. IBM Consulting IBM ...
as a consultant before founding his own company in July 2002, Aviation Strategy Consultants, where he led the initial phase of the launch of
Air Arabia Air Arabia ( ar, العربية للطيران ''al-ʿArabiyya Lit-Ṭayarān'') is an Emirati low-cost airline with its head office in the A1 Building Sharjah Freight Center, Sharjah International Airport, UAE. The airline operates scheduled se ...
. In 2003, Darby joined
Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, e ...
as a managing partner before leaving for
Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
to replace Garry Cullen as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Caribbean inter-island airline LIAT in June 2006.


LIAT CEO

Upon arrival at LIAT, Darby was given the mandate to transform a "bankrupt and inefficient regional airline that was losing EC$80 million (US$30 million) a year" by the Board and a demand by the shareholder islands to not "come back for more cash", having absorbed US$72.7m between that time and 2001. In January 2007, Darby announced a proposed merger with
Caribbean Star Airlines Caribbean Star Airlines was an airline based in Antigua and Barbuda. It operated scheduled passenger services in conjunction with Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT) to destinations in the eastern Caribbean. Its main base was VC Bird Internation ...
, with which LIAT had been engaged in intense competition since 2005. However, in June 2007 the shareholder governments of
Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
, Antigua & St Vincent gave the go-ahead to the Board of Directors to buy out Caribbean Star instead. LIAT purchased Caribbean Star Airlines on 24 October 2007 and five of Caribbean Star's
Bombardier Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...
-300 aircraft were transferred to LIAT. The airline broke even in 2007 and the following year made a small profit. However, Darby faced extensive challenges at LIAT. Alongside high operating costs, air travel taxes comprising more than 40% of airfares, small populations with low
GDP per capita Lists of countries by GDP per capita list the countries in the world by their gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The lists may be based on nominal or purchasing power parity GDP. Gross national income (GNI) per capita accounts for inflows ...
and the lack of ability to fund Public Service Obligation subsidies for marginal routes, a workforce of 900 had eleven separate
trade unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
and had suffered from poor morale due to the consequent threat of bankruptcy from cash-flow problems for several years prior to Darby's arrival. Furthermore, he had not anticipated the complexity of three islands with limited budgets having stakes in the airline, with resultant necessity for consensus in decision-making and "lack of clear shareholder direction". However, in April 2009 Darby was dismissed from LIAT over a dispute surrounding his decision to compensate workers for going beyond the call of duty, saying the payments to staffers were not exorbitant and were in the range of EC$1,000 - EC$2,000 (US$375-US$750) a month. The board claimed he had acted above his authority; he later sued successfully for unfair dismissal. He described his three years at LIAT as "fascinating and hard work, but rewarding".


Fly Baboo CEO

After a year working on various airline and air transport consultancy projects at Aviation Strategy Consultants, Darby was appointed by its shareholder (Lebanese investment group, M1) as CEO of Baboo in March 2010 with a mandate to stem its losses. Having expanded just as the
late-2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...
began to take hold, the airline had faced harsh competition from its
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
base from
easyJet Switzerland EasyJet Switzerland SA, styled as easyJet, is a Swiss low-cost airline based in Meyrin, canton of Geneva.Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
,
Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
,
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
). Having incurred an average load factor across the airline of below 50% between January and July 2010, Darby oversaw the suspension of routes between
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
and London,
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
as well as a winter seasonal service between Geneva and Oxford. In October 2010, Darby announced that the airline planned to return three of its
Embraer E190 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding ...
aircraft to their lessors by the end of November 2010. Darby entered into negotiations with Lugano-based
Darwin Airline Darwin Airline SA was a Swiss regional airline with its head office in Bioggio, Lugano flying under the brand name Adria Airways Switzerland. It operated scheduled domestic and international services in some western European countries. It used ...
to sell the remaining parts of Baboo - the Geneva-based turboprop operation. On 25 November 2010, Darwin confirmed its plans to take over this remaining part of Baboo in early 2011. Once this transition was completed, the company was closed in the Autumn of 2011.


Aurigny Air Services CEO

Whilst spending a further year working at his own company (Aviation Strategy Consultants) on several consultancy projects including working with the SH&E team on the turnaround of
Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
-based
Gulf Air Gulf Air ( ar, طيران الخليج ''Ṭayarān al-Khalīj'') is the state-owned airline and the flag carrier of Bahrain, which was founded in 1950 by British Pilot Freddie Bosworth as Gulf Aviation. Headquartered in Muharraq, the airline ...
, Darby was appointed a non-executive director of Aurigny Air Services in September 2011 alongside Gavin St Pier and Michael Richards. In April 2013, he replaced Malcolm Hart with immediate effect as interim CEO of Aurigny but in September 2013 took up the position full-time. After Flybe announced in May 2013 that it would withdraw from
London Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...
as of March 2014, it became apparent that Aurigny would be the sole operator on Guernsey's lifeline Gatwick route. Darby oversaw a review of fleet options to carry an additional 250,000 passengers per annum on the route, an order for a 122-seat
Embraer 195 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding E ...
jet aircraft realised in ten months (compared to the industry average of around a minimum of two years) entering service in June 2014 as the first jet aircraft operated by Aurigny in the airline's history and also additional legal protection for Aurigny's sole operator status on the route in the face of potential competition from
easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...
. Aside from work to secure the Gatwick route, in a move reflecting his previous work to allow co-operation between LIAT and Caribbean Star, Darby also oversaw a codeshare agreement on the Guernsey-Jersey route between Aurigny and competitor
Blue Islands Blue Islands Limited is a British regional airline of the Channel Islands. Its head office is in Saint Peter, Jersey, and its registered office is in Saint Anne, Alderney. It operates scheduled services from and within the Channel Islands to t ...
which (when it came into force on 16 March 2014) saw the former stop operating flights between the two islands for the first time since 1969. In January 2016, Aurigny and Blue Islands announced the contract for the codeshare would not be renewed, after Blue Islands became a franchise partner with
Flybe Flybe (pronounced ), styled as flybe, is a British airline based at Birmingham Airport, England. History The airline traces its history back to Jersey European Airways, which was set up in 1979 following the merger of Intra Airways and Expres ...
and restrictions on the latter's inter-island operation were lifted by the States of Guernsey the previous year. Furthermore, following a successful trial in November 2013, Darby led efforts to replace the forty-year-old
Britten-Norman Trislander The Britten-Norman Trislander (more formally designated the BN-2A Mk III Trislander) is an 18-seat three-engined piston-powered civilian utility aircraft produced in the 1970s and early 1980s by Britten-Norman of Britain. These STOL capable a ...
fleet with
Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...
s to serve routes from Alderney and to France, as well as overseeing the launch of new year-round routes to London City and
Leeds Bradford Leeds Bradford Airport is located in Yeadon, in the City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, about northwest of Leeds city centre, and about northeast from Bradford city centre. It serves Leeds and Bradford and th ...
as well as seasonal links to
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
and
London Luton London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, situated east of the town centre, and north of Central London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL), a company wholly owned by L ...
. Darby envisages that Aurigny's Embraer 195 as well as its sole operator status on its flagship Gatwick route helped it towards profit in 2016. In 2017, following the delayed arrival of the second Dornier 228'NG' aircraft, Darby was finally able to decommission the last Trislander aircraft out of the fleet. In 2018 he oversaw the launch of a new web sales platform that was developed by the company to provide its customers with a much improved user experience and greater operational flexibility. It also facilitated the development of further self-help tools for customers as well as permitting increased ancillary revenues. Also in 2018, Darby negotiated the purchase of 3 new ATR 72-600 aircraft equipped with 'Clearvision' technology. The acquisition was funded by a loan from RBSI. The aircraft were delivered in late 2019. In 2020, Darby led the company through the Covid-19 pandemic, developing tactics and initiatives aimed at helping the business remain operationally ready throughout the crisis. Recognising an opportunity, he was instrumental in developing an 'airbridge' between Covid-free Guernsey and Isle of Man - providing the opportunity for 7000 islanders to travel between the islands on short-break holidays. In August 2020 it was announced that Darby had informed the Board of Aurigny (in February 2020) of his decision to retire in the spring of 2021.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darby, Mark 1959 births Living people People educated at Hurstpierpoint College People educated at King's School, Rochester Alumni of the University of Brighton British businesspeople Deloitte people