Terry Murden: Gammell is the key to Cairn's new-look boardroom

The shares dipped on the news, but the fall was largely in line with a declining market. Investors seemed relatively satisfied that, far from suffering a loss of talent, the board was being refreshed and possibly strengthened.

Headlining the changes, of course, was Sir Bill Gammell himself, who moves from his long-standing position as chief executive to non-executive chairman. It's also the most controversial move as the board has to satisfy corporate governance guidelines that generally disapprove of such a move.

The company said he'd been thinking about a change of role for some time, but the board clearly doesn't want to lose what is, apart from the oil in the ground, its biggest asset. His long experience in a job that requires diplomatic, cultural and geographic knowledge is worth a considerable chunk of the company's share price. He has to deal not only with foreign states with different views on how to do business, but with those such as environmental activists who object to its activities.

Indeed, Cairn will have a new chairman, chief executive and managing director, but it will be broadly the same team with different titles. Shareholders were sounded out about the changes and apparently had no objection to altering the names on the office doors. From that we must deduce that the comfort factor in the reshuffle was that the key personnel remained but with a re-charged agenda and a new force at the centre in the guise of the lesser known Simon Thomson who succeeds Gammell.

Thomson's elevation from a legal background may come as a surprise but he has a 16-year association with the company so is tuned in for the challenges ahead. He will become the new face fronting Cairn's next phase of development off the coast of Greenland.

But no-one is more synonymous with Cairn that Gammell himself, founder and creative force behind the Edinburgh company. As with Sir Brian Souter at Stagecoach, investors find it hard to separate Gammell from Cairn, but they will hope there is no repeat of the problems Stagecoach had when Souter had to be recalled as CEO after his move upstairs was followed by a sustained fall in the share price.

The timing of these changes is interesting in itself, with some believing they were due to come in after Cairn had sold the larger part of its Indian business and was preparing to shift its activities elsewhere, notably to Greenland, where it will be refocused on exploration.

Yesterday's announcement suggests the sale of a $9.6 billion (5.9bn) stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources is close to getting the nod from the Indian government. One source claimed an announcement is imminent, possibly just days away. On the other hand, ministers avoided the subject at a cabinet meeting yesterday. Second guessing decision-making in the Indian bureaucracy is no easy task.

Airlines might have trouble selling this one

TO SAY the airline industry is angry about air passenger duty is an understatement. Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson describes it as one of the most unjust taxes in the country. Critics accuse the UK government of increasing APD in the guise of it being an environmental tax without any proof that the 2 billion so far raised is going towards environmental or sustainable projects.

Prestwick airport boss Iain Cochrane says APD's impact has been devastating and calculates the loss of inbound tourists through his airport to have cost the Scottish economy more than 130 million a year in passenger spend alone. Abolishing APD would bring in an extra 750,000 passengers and create up to 750 jobs, he claims.

These are big numbers, but the evidence is flimsy. In many cases we're talking about an extra 5 on a ticket. About the price of a couple of drinks in the terminal bar.

If airports and airlines feel so sorry for hard-up passengers why are they urging them to spend more money in ever-expanding airport shopping malls or fork out on-board for trinkets, perfume and jewellery?

This is one fight they may have trouble winning.