Southampton Airport’s largest operator Flybe has revealed a major management shake up as it tries to battle multi-million pound savings.

The company has announce the appointment of Saad Hammad as Chief Executive Officer with effect from August 1.

He will replace Jim French who will become non-executive chairman from the same date.

The appointment comes after the company, which has its headquarters in Exeter, has reported losses of more than £40m.

But Flybe revealed that it hopes to make annual savings of £50m by 2014/15 after slashing more than 20 per cent of its workforce and cutting pilot pay by up to five per cent.

Flybe insisted its recovery efforts were helping it make “significant steps in the right direction”, having also recently quit Gatwick Airport by selling its runway space amid plans to concentrate on its core bases, such as Southampton, Manchester, Birmingham and the Channel Islands.

It has already cut around 490 roles, with a further 90 planned in the current financial year.

New chief executive Mr Hammad was chief commercial officer of easyJet plc from October 2005 to April 2009.

Between May 2011 and October 2012, he was a non-executive director of Air Berlin plc, the second largest airline in Germany.

Mr Hammad is currently a managing director at the Gores Group, an operations-focused private equity firm with $4bn under management, where he has been responsible for leading operational due diligence efforts across Europe as well as working with portfolio company executive teams to achieve full operational potential.

Outgoing chairman Mr French commented: “We are delighted to welcome Saad to Flybe.

“He brings with him a wealth of industry experience as well as a track record of leadership and Board positions across a range of public and private businesses and we are very much looking forward to working with him.

“Flybe has recently updated the City on the significant progress made in its major turnaround plan which is on track to deliver over £50m in long-term cost savings and has generated over £40m in cash to fund the transition.”