The COO of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is leaving for another job next month after spending just one year with the company.
The departing executive, Mike Spanos, is scheduled to jet off to another company in September, according to Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a recent memo to employees.
“Since joining Delta, Mike immersed himself with our frontline teams, prioritizing safety first and always,” said Bastian.
“He embraced our servant leadership philosophy and fostered strong connections with the people of Delta through his humble and empathetic style of leadership.”
Spanos’ departure comes just weeks after Delta struggled to recover from the outage that caused mass flight cancellations.
The fiasco has led to a federal investigation into the company by The U.S. Department of Transportation, who are looking into why Delta took so long to recover.
In addition, a class action lawsuit filed by impacted passengers who claim to have been impacted by travel difficulties. The lawsuit claims the airline refused to give passengers refunds as required.
Due to the consequences of the cancellations, Delta has threatened to sue CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity technology company that they claim is responsible for cancellations that cost the Atlanta-based airline half a billion dollars.
Despite the recent difficulties experienced by the company, Bastian claims in his memo that Spanos’ desire to leave the company preceded the July events.
The company has no plans to replace Spanos at the moment, and the two executives under the COO, John Laughter and Allison Ausband, will now report to Bastian.
