Bellemare in Delta | The Journal of Montreal

Less than a year after being fired from Bombardier, Alain Bellemare was hired Wednesday to take over the top management of US carrier Delta Airlines.

“With in-depth international experience in managing aerospace companies with annual revenues of several billion dollars, Alain leads our international investment portfolio and works with our partners in recovering from the pandemic,” he said. Delta Big Boss Ed Bastian said in an internal memo.

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Delta has investments in at least eight foreign companies, including Air France-KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Aeromexico, Latam and China Eastern. Due to the epidemic, these investments caused a loss of over $ 2 billion to Delta last year.

Montreal to Atlanta

Alain Bellemare reports directly to Mr. Bastian and is also responsible for Delta relations with its aviation partners in the International Skyteam Alliance.

After a long stint at Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut, Alain Bellemare, an American citizen, moved to Atlanta, where Delta is headquartered, along with his wife, Mary-Josie Simard.

Now 59, Mr Bellemare was fired by the Bombardier in March 2020 after the Quebec group struggled to rebuild. He qualified for 7 15.7 million “exit arrangements”.

MM. Bellemare and Bastian met when placing an order for the Delta 75 Bombardier C Series aircraft in 2016, now known as the Airbus A220. The deal gave new life to the flight program.

Brief stop at Carlyle

Alain Bellemere personally greeted Ed Bastian when he arrived on a private jet at Mirabelle Airport to sign the contract. Delta currently has 43 A220 aircraft.

In August, major US investment firm Carlyle appointed Mr Bellemare as executive in the aerospace, defense and public services sectors.