Airbus Americas Names Robert Lekites New Executive Vice President-Customers

Airbus Americas today announced it is growing and strengthening its customer-focused team in the region with two new executive appointments.

The company has named Robert Lekites as Executive Vice President-Customers, effective August 1, 2011. Lekites will be responsible for Customer Services and North American Sales, Marketing, Contracts and Sales Finance. This is a new position in the company, and he will report directly to Barry Eccleston, President and CEO of Airbus Americas.

The company also named Ken McKenzie as its new Senior Vice President-Customer Services effective September 1, 2011. Ken replaces Tom Anderson, who has moved to Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse. McKenzie will be responsible for oversight of Airbus Americas’ Training, Customer Support and Material Support functions, and will report to Lekites.

Lekites brings tremendous experience in the aviation industry to Airbus Americas, having most recently retired from UPS after 37 years. As president of UPS Airlines, Lekites was responsible for more than 17,000 employees worldwide and all aspects of UPS’ airline and international operations. The Massachusetts native started working with UPS in 1974 as a delivery driver and was promoted into management in 1979 as an industrial engineer. Over the next two decades, he worked in the UPS operations in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Columbia, S.C. He became director of UPS Flight Operations in Louisville in 1996. In 1997 he became responsible for UPS’s airline and international operations. He attended Northern Essex Community College and Lowell Technological Institute in Massachusetts, and graduated from Columbia Business School’s Executive Leadership Program in 1995.

McKenzie comes to Airbus Americas from Spirit Airlines, which he joined in 2009 as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Spirit, McKenzie served as Executive Vice President, Operations at WestJet, where he was responsible for airport operations, flight operations, government relations, inflight, regulatory affairs, safety and, technical operations. Prior to WestJet, McKenzie served as Chief Pilot, Regulatory Affairs at Air Canada Jazz. Mr. McKenzie also led the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees flight program for West Africa and was a pilot and officer in the Canadian Armed Forces for 14 years, specializing in Tactical Helicopter Operations and Search and Rescue. McKenzie has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba.

“The addition of Bob and Ken to the Airbus Americas team is recognition of the growth in our region and is made necessary by that growth,” said Barry Eccleston. “We have more and more customers here, and as a result, we have more aircraft to support. Bob and Ken bring additional customer perspective to the team, and both gentlemen are very familiar with the Airbus product. They make an already strong customer team at Airbus Americas even stronger for the future.”

Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern, eco-efficient and comprehensive family of airliners available, ranging in capacity from 100 to more than 500 seats. With over 5800 aircraft in service worldwide and a backlog of some 3700, Airbus is a global company with design and manufacturing facilities around the world. Airbus Americas supports and sells to customers in North and Latin America and conducts engineering work for the global Airbus product line. In 2010 alone, Airbus spent over $10 billion with hundreds of U.S. suppliers, translating into Airbus support of more than 180,000 American jobs. Airbus is an EADS company.