http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050308/325/fdx8w.html
Tuesday March 8, 12:33 PM
BA names new chief
LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways has appointed former Aer Lingus boss Willie Walsh as its new chief executive, Europe's second-largest airline says.
BA said in a statement on Tuesday the current CEO Rod Eddington, 55, would retire at the end of September this year.
Walsh, 43, who left the top job at Aer Lingus earlier this year, will start as chief executive designate on May 3.
"Many commentators have rightly said that Rod Eddington will be a hard act to follow, but I am completely confident that in Willie we have captured the very best person for the job," BA Chairman Martin Broughton said.
Sources confirmed on Monday that Eddington planned to return to his native Australia later this year.
Outspoken Eddington has slashed costs and cut 13,000 jobs during his tenure at BA and is credited with ensuring the airline survived a slump in global travel following the September 2001 attacks on the United States.
Walsh had been touted in the media as a potential candidate to succeed Eddington, but the market had not been expecting an appointment to be announced so soon.
BA shares rose 2.2 percent to 282-1/2 pence at 1220 GMT (12:20 p.m. British time).