Willie Walsh, the architect of the merger of British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus that led to thousands of job losses, is stepping down. Mr Walsh, 58, has been chief executive of International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) since its creation in the BA/Iberia merger of 2011. Before that he had been chief executive of British Airways since 2005 and chief executive of Aer Lingus, which IAG bought in 2015. He will stand down on March 26 and is to be replaced by Luis Gallego, 51, a Spaniard little known in the UK but who has been chief executive of Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, for the past five years. His appointment effectively completes an Iberian takeover of BA as the airline’s chief executive, Alex Cruz,…

Source: The Times January 09, 2020 09:10 UTC