Willie Walsh (Irish businessman)
| Willie Walsh | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
25 October 1961 Dublin, Ireland |
| Residence | London |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Salary | €7.89 million (2016) |
William Matthew "Willie" Walsh (born 25 October 1961) is an Irish airline executive. He is CEO of International Airlines Group, and has been CEO of Aer Lingus and British Airways.
Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland. He attended his local secondary school Ardscoil Rís. At age 17 he became a pilot at Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, joining as a cadet in 1979. He acquired a Master's degree in management and business administration from Trinity College, Dublin during his pilot years, while advancing to become a Boeing 737 captain.
He joined company management in various positions including chief executive of then company subsidiary, Futura from 1998 to 2000. He returned to Aer Lingus at that time as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
In October 2001 Walsh was elevated from COO to CEO, succeeding Michael Foley who had resigned following a harassment complaint. The carrier was in financial difficulty. Walsh eliminated 2,000 staff positions, reduced the number of aircraft types and sold non-core assets, including an art collection at the company headquarters. He reconfigured Aer Lingus as a low-cost airline in imitation of Ryanair, and began withdrawing from various services like short-haul Business Class and cargo services, and severely restricting the airline's frequent-flyer programme, TAB.
The company operating profits rebounded, but the cost of the write-offs and redundancies meant that net profitability was not as quick to recover. Not all of Walsh's reforms were successful, such as the outsourcing of aircraft cleaning. The contracting had not been agreed with Aer Lingus unions which led to large payments to the private contractor while Aer Lingus employees did the cleaning work. A three-day lock-out occurred in 2002 during the peak of the cutbacks.
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