Dutch railway chief Marjan Rintel has been appointed as the new chief executive of KLM, replacing Pieter Elbers who is leaving the company early.

Rintel has been head of NS since 2014, prior to which she also held a number of managerial and commercial positions at the Dutch flag carrier. She will take office on July 1st 2022.

Air France-KLM has also decided to renew the appointment of Ben Smith as group CEO for a further five years.

The decisions ‘position a strong management team for the years ahead’ given the extremely complex market, the group’s board of directors said in a statement.

The Financieele Dagblad says Rintel has a tough task ahead of her.

KLM had to be bailed out by the government because of the coronavirus crisis and the aviation sector is also being ‘confronted with increasing government regulations about sustainability, which is putting pressure on the revenue model’, the paper said.