from RTE's website
Walsh named as new British Airways CEO
March 08, 2005 12:36
The former Aer Lingus boss Willie Walsh has been named as the new Chief Executive of British Airways.
BA, Europe's second largest airline, said in a statement that its current chief 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 yesterday 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 US.
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.
There had been some speculation that Willie Walsh, along with Aer Lingus' former chief operations officer Seamus Kearney and the airline's finance director Brian Dunne were planning to establish a new airline themselves. The three announced their retirement from the national carrier in November.