We don’t usually cover airline personnel changes, but this one is a bit different: Willie Walsh, the Irish-born pilot who turned British Airways into International Air Group with six airlines in three countries is retiring, after a career as one of the key figures in the age of airline consolidation.
On his watch, British Airways built a tight trans-Atlantic joint venture with American Airlines, was a key player in strengthening the Oneworld alliance, and engineered British Airways’ takeover of Spain’s Iberia to form IAG, and then added Spanish budget carrier Vueling and Irish flag carrier Aer LIngus. More recently, it has created another budget carrier, Level, and will close this year on buying Air Europa. Only Lufthansa, among European carriers, has such a network.
The Aer Lingus deal, which closed a purchase that Ryanair had tried to make, had a special meaning for Walsh, not only because he was tired, he told people, of being confused with Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary, but also because it is where he began his airline career as a pilot cadet and later became CEO.
