The Condor sister company Marabu Airlines has been in the crossfire of public media criticism since it began flight operations. Now company boss Paul Schwaiger is stepping down “for personal reasons”, as can be read in a media release. 

Ad interium, manager Axel Schefe, who also comes from Condor, has taken over the Marabu executive chair with immediate effect. The main task is to stabilize and further advance flight operations. However, there is also a crisis at the main partner Nordica, because the state-owned company seems to have made a massive mistake and recently had to announce that it had made a loss of over seven million euros in the first half of the current year. The financial situation is also said to be tense. 

Marabu Airlines was founded last year by the Condor majority owner Attestor and should also serve to circumvent a fleet growth ban to which the German airline is subject due to state aid. Nordica was brought on board as a partner, which, among other things, is to operate part of the fleet and is also active with other services for Marabu. Another partner is Heston Airlines. Condor is responsible for sales. However, the overall combination obviously only works in a very complicated way, because Marabu Airlines has been a regular in the negative headlines since it started operations. Schefe will take over the position with immediate effect, while Schwaiger will remain active in an advisory capacity for Marabu for a transitional period in order to ensure an orderly transition. 

Paul Schwaiger, who was previously sales manager at Condor, acted as Marabu managing director from the time the company was founded. The official media release only mentions “initial difficulties that would have been caused, among other things, by partner aircraft being made available late and bottlenecks in the supply of spare parts”. The fact that the Estonian carrier continues to hit the headlines almost every day with enormous delays is not even mentioned. 

However, Axel Schefe will only come to Marabu Airlines as a kind of "fireman" because Schwaiger's final successor has not yet been decided. Suitable candidates may not be queuing up for the executive chair of this carrier. In any case, the Condor man comes with the clear order that the flight operations of Marabu Airlines should be stabilized 

“Marabu is a young airline with an experienced team and potential. I'm looking forward to building on the progress initiated by Mr. Schwaiger together with the team over the next few months and to further consolidating Marabu's position in the market," says Axel Schefe.