Pegasus Airlines has installed two of its own senior managers at the top of newly acquired Czech carrier Smartwings, with both appointments taking effect on 1 October.

Emre Pekesen, Pegasus group director of sales and network planning, becomes chief executive of Smartwings. Nur Karabacak takes the chief financial officer role. Both are long-serving Pegasus executives rather than external hires, signaling that the Turkish budget operator intends to run its Prague-based acquisition with management drawn directly from the parent group.

Who are the new executives?

Pekesen has spent his entire recent career inside Pegasus, having joined the Istanbul-carrier in 2010. His most recent remit — group-level responsibility for sales and network planning — covers precisely the levers a low-cost parent typically pulls first after an acquisition: where aircraft fly, at what frequencies, and at what price points.

Karabacak joined Pegasus in 2018 and most recently served as group head of budget, reporting and cost control. Her move into the CFO seat at Smartwings places a cost-discipline specialist over the Czech carrier's finances at a moment when integration spending and fleet-coordination decisions will dominate the agenda.

Who did they replace?

The incoming pair reportedly succeed Roman Vik as chief executive and Jiri Juran as chief financial officer respectively. Czech government company registry filings for Smartwings list Juran as chair of a three-member board, alongside Jiri Benes and Michal Stasek.

The registry record provides a snapshot of the pre-transition governance structure. Whether the remaining board seats turn over as integration proceeds will be a marker of how far Pegasus intends to consolidate control beyond the two executive positions it has now filled.

What does the timing signal?

The appointments landed simultaneously on a single date — 1 October — rather than as staggered successions. A same-day changeover at both the CEO and CFO positions indicates a decisive handover, not a phased transition in which outgoing executives remain to advise.

The moves follow Smartwings' acquisition by Pegasus, the Turkish low-cost operator. The new leadership structure now aligns commercial authority (Pekesen) and financial authority (Karabacak) with executives who built their careers inside the acquiring group.

For Smartwings, the practical consequences will surface in network and budget decisions: a CEO whose background is network planning can be expected to revisit route economics, while a CFO elevated from group cost control will apply the parent's reporting framework to the Czech operation.

Whether Pegasus follows this management change with deeper structural integration — fleet, branding, or a single air operator's certificate — remains the open question for the months ahead.