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WILLIE WALSH IS delaying his retirement from International Airlines Group (IAG) for a number of months but will step down as CEO in September.
In January it was confirmed that the Dubliner would retire from IAG, with an initial end date set for 30 June. As the Covid-19 crisis took hold in March, IAG announced that the retirement was being postponed.
The group has now confirmed that Walsh will stay on in the position for the summer before he is replaced by Luis Gallego, the current chief executive of Iberia, on 24 September.
“We are grateful that Willie delayed his retirement at this challenging time providing the airlines’ management with the necessary stability to focus on the immediate response to the crisis. We look forward to working closely with Luis in his new role,” the company said in a statement today.
Walsh oversaw the creation of IAG with the merger of British Airways and Spanish national carrier Iberia in 2010, becoming chief executive of the resulting company.
IAG then bought out the Irish government’s stake in Aer Lingus in 2015 with Walsh the man who spearheaded the successful approach.
The update on Walsh’s position comes as IAG announced an operating pre-tax loss of €535 million for the first quarter of the year, due to coronavirus fallout. This contrasts with a slender net profit of €70 million for the same period last year.
In financial results published this morning, the airline group said that statutory after-tax losses amounted to €1.68 billion.
The after-tax loss for the three months to March contrasted with a slender net profit of €70 million for the same period last year.
News of the sharp loss comes one week after IAG outlined plans to axe up to 12,000 BA staff, as it struggles to cope with evaporating demand for air travel.
“The operating result up to the end of February was in line with a year ago. However, March’s performance was severely affected by government travel restrictions due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 which significantly impacted demand. Most of the loss in the quarter occurred in the last two weeks of March,” Walsh said in a financial statement.
The statement also said that Aer Lingus’ capacity was: “broadly flat for January and February with increases in North Atlantic routes, from the route to Minneapolis launched in July 2019, and increased frequencies to Boston and San Francisco, offset by reductions in short-haul capacity”.
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very moving documentary and very difficult to watch. just goes to show that how a person is treated as a child stays with them all through life.
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize. I hope Christina and her siblings schedule re-unions a few times each year. They deserve to have the time to be together without the intrusion of media and cameras. It might help them fill the empty space that they hover over at the moment. Each of the four no doubt have their own separate circles of friends. They need now to be afforded the space to reaffirm that special circle of friends called family.
She has such passion for children.she is an inspiration to us all.it was a compelling programme
I read her book nearly two decades ago and it still haunts me. I couldn’t understand how her work in Vietnam wasn’t more well known but maybe her account of her childhood was probably too raw for a lot of people. She’s been a personal inspiration.
Some people when they’re at their happiest (singing) show real pain .
Wonderful to see how television reached the hearts of the Irish people (the word premiere was held in Dublin last September). And don’t miss the film NOBLE when it comes around again. It would be nice now to have Journalists, Senators and Politicians comment on Christina Noble’s story, in the context of what is happening in Geneva right now, as Ireland faces the United Nations condemnation of our serious lapses with Human Rights at home.
After watching the programme I think Christina has mentally suffered from her years in an institution you can see the hatred in her against the government and the church at the time and I think her way to deal with that is to look after those unfortunate children .one part where I thought she was out of order was when she made a verbal attack on what she thought was a priest ,you know a lot o priests were sickened as to what happened to these kids too there are a lot of good priest out there . .One more thing I want to say ,I was also institutionalised in an industrial school for years just for not going to school and was abused also but like Jesus I have learned to forgive but not forget I always say those abusers will have to face judgement some day but overall I feel so sorry for Christina for the way it has affected her
@ joeythelad, i agree with you , i found it difficult to watch as christina’s pain is very evident and of course well founded. i was also surprised with the response she got in the pub , dont why ? what i find surprising is that many people either dont know that she is irish or dont know anything about her work at all!
i hope herself and her family have the time they need to try and bond and she finds some peace. so glad that you have learned to forgive , i am not so sure i could forgive, all the best
What a great woman
Nice house in Texas as well
denise, did you watch the programme? what has her brothers house in texas got to do with it? such an odd comment for this story!
I know,Denise !
What should we do about it ? Genuine question .
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