Swissport appoints Dirk Goovaerts as head of Middle East and Africa

• Prior to joining Swissport, Dirk Goovaerts was CEO Asia Pacific with dnata.

June 16, 2021: As head of the new Middle East and Africa region, Swissport has appointed Dirk Goovaerts, who will join the company on September 1, 2021. He has over 25 years of experience in the cargo and ground handling industry. Goovaerts has a proven track record in customer centricity, operational excellence, innovation, digital acceleration and turnaround management, both driving growth and creating shareholder value.

Prior to joining Swissport, he was CEO Asia Pacific with dnata. Previous roles included the positions as COO of Saudi Ground Services Company, senior vice president Europe with Menzies Aviation and as finance director global network of outstations at Sabena.

As part of a new commercial structure, Swissport has redesigned its market setup and appointed new regional managers for Switzerland, Germany and Austria, Continental Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. The new leaders report directly to the president and CEO.

The revised structure creates larger market clusters with direct reporting lines to the CEO and eliminates the former three super-regions and their respective regional overheads delivering better customer focus and faster decisions.

"Our new structure will make Swissport more customer centric. It enables faster decisions and supports operational excellence and a consistent service delivery," says Warwick Brady, president & CEO of Swissport International AG.

Bruno Stefani joined as the head of Switzerland from June 1, and he also oversees the executive aviation business in Nice, France.

Effective 1 June, Philipp Frech, previously chief operating officer US East, has been appointed Head of Germany & Austria.

Jan van Engelen has been appointed as head of the new region Continental Europe. He will join Swissport on July 1, 2021.