Christine Jeanne Ourmières-Widener (born 21 September 1964) is a French businesswoman known for her work in the

commercial aviation Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation. Definition Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...

industry. She was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

French Bee French Bee SAS, styled as French bee, and formerly named ''French Blue'', is a French low-cost, long-haul airline based at Paris Orly Airport. It operates a scheduled network between France and worldwide leisure destinations with a fleet of Ai ...

. She previously served in the role at Flybe,

CityJet CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters at Dublin Airport. It was founded in 1992 and has gone through a series of corporate structures. In 2023, it merged with Air Nostrum, forming Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SAR ...

, and

TAP Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the flag carrier of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2,500 flights ...

Career

Early career

Ourmières-Widener worked at

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

from 1988, where she started in the maintenance team for the

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

. Subsequently, she was appointed as the UK and Ireland Managing Director for Air France, she was then named Chief Executive of the Irish airline

, after it was bought by Air France, from 1 October 2010 to 2015. She was for some time part of the

European Regions Airline Association The European Regions Airline Association is a trade association of European regional airlines and associated businesses. It was founded as the European Regional Airlines Association in 1980, by a small number of what were then known as ''commuter ...

. On 20 December 2016, it was announced that Ourmières-Widener was joining Flybe. She was the first woman elected to the board of 31 members. She had been appointed interim director on 24 April 2017, when Fernando Pinto stepped down.tourmag.com: "Christine Ourmières-Widener rejoint le Comité de Direction de IATA"
6 Jun 2018

CEO of TAP, 2021–2023

On 24 June 2021, Ourmières-Widener was appointed CEO of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

's flag carrier

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the flag carrier of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its airline hub, hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2, ...

. During her tenant as CEO of

, the company went through restructuring and observed positive financial growth which was also boosted by the end of COVID-19 restrictions schemes on travel of passengers. However, such endeavours were tarnished in 2022 with scandals, culminating with the Alexandra Reis case. Reis, a state secretary of Treasure who was a board member of

then dismissed by Ourmières-Widener without the latter publicly disclosing the nature of this action, left the company with agreement on a hefty

severance pay Severance may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Severance'' (film), a 2006 British horror film * ''Severance'' (novel), a 2018 novel by Ling Ma *''Severance'', a 2006 short-story collection by Robert Olen Butler * ''Severance'' (TV series), ...

(over €500,000, to compensate the remainder of her full 4-year term contract with paid holidays) to work on NAV, another state-subsidised institute, which evoked public outcry on Portuguese society. Political pressure led to the dismissal of Pedro Nuno Santos, minister of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, a cabinet directly involved with the ownership of TAP and who gave approval to the dismissal of Reis. On 6 March 2023, weeks after the public inquiry in the Portuguese Parliament about the Alexandra Reis case, and the final audit report from IGF (Inspeção-Geral de Finanças), the government dismissed her from executive duties with no severance pay. In September 2023, Ourmières-Widener filed a lawsuit with the Central Civil Court of Lisbon to claim over 5.9 million euros ($6.3 million) in compensation.

CEO of French Bee, 2023 - January 2025

Ourmières-Widener was appointed CEO of

, a French

long-haul In aviation, the flight length or flight distance refers to the distance of a flight. Aircraft do not necessarily follow the great-circle distance, but may opt for a longer route due to weather, traffic, to utilise a jet stream, or to refuel. Co ...

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...

, and president of

Air Caraïbes Air Caraïbes () is a French airline based in the French West Indies, with its headquarters in Les Abymes in Guadeloupe. The airline's main base of operations is at Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, with a focus city at ...

in 2023. On January 21, 2025, the Dubreuil group, the holding company of

and

, announced the end of their collaboration with Christine Ourmières-Widener.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ourmières-Widener, Christine 1964 births French airline chief executives ESSEC Business School alumni Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering French women chief executives French women engineers Businesspeople from Avignon Living people 21st-century French women engineers