Peter Bellew, the current chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, is to re-join Ryanair as chief operations officer.
Bellew’s return to the no-frills airline comes after Michael Hickey stood down recently following controversy over Ryanair’s plans to cancel flights up to next March. The cancellations came after errors in the company’s pilot rostering practices.
When Mr Bellew re-joins the company on December 1st, he will have responsibility for flight operations, ground operations and engineering, “but with a specific responsibility for pilot production, training and career development with a mission to ensure that the pilot rostering failure which Ryanair suffered in early September will never be repeated”, a statement said.
“Peter will lead a significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots, improve their working environment and career development over the coming years as we grow the fleet to some 600 aircraft and expand our traffic, at lower fares, to 200 million customers per annum,” said Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive.
Commenting on his appointment, Mr Bellew said: “I am excited to return home to Ryanair and take up the challenge to grow the operation sustainably. I look forward to working with all the team and all the crews I know so well to further develop our growth to 600 aircraft over the next six years.”
Prior to joining Malaysia Airlines, Mr Bellew worked as flight operations director at Ryanair until 2014.
MEANWHILE, according to Malaysiakini:
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will be losing its second chief executive officer in less than three years.
Newspaper The Irish Times reported that Peter Bellew, who became MAS CEO in July 2016, would be returning to Ryanair.
The report said Bellew will serve as the Irish carrier’s chief operations officer effective Dec 1.
This was despite his denial last month that he would be leaving MAS, after being spotted at the Irish airline’s headquarters in Dublin.
Bellew, in a statement released by Ryanair, said he was pleased to return to his former company.
“I am excited to return home to Ryanair and take up the challenge to grow the operation sustainably.
“I look forward to working with all the team and all the crews I know so well to further develop our growth to 600 aircraft over the next six years,” he was quoted as saying.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary also welcomed Bellew’s return.
“Peter has an unrivalled knowledge of our business model and how we maintain controlled growth, with industry-leading punctuality, for the benefit of our customers and our people.
“Peter will lead a significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots, improve their working environment and career development over the coming years, as we grow the fleet to some 600 aircraft and expand our traffic, at lower fares, to 200 million customers per annum,” he said.
Bellew had replaced Christoph Mueller as MAS CEO, who had only served in the post for a little over a year.
Mueller joined the airlines in May 2015, but quit abruptly in June last year.
Both men had been tasked to turn MAS around after the company went into administration, following the twin disasters of flights MH370 and MH17 in 2014.
TOUGH QUESTIONS FROM NAJIB’S TRUMP FIASCO
As part of a rescue plan, MAS was taken private by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, a state-owned wealth fund.
Shortly before Mueller’s exit, he had complained in an interview that MAS had too many employees who were “doing nothing.”
“When I walked through the hangars, people were sleeping. That’s why I had to radically cut 6,000 jobs,” Muller told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
MAS, under Bellew, had also faced tough questions after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, following his visit to the US last month, announced that the company would purchase between US$10 billion to US$20 billion in aircraft from Boeing.
The purchase has raised questions on whether MAS was deviating from its recovery plan.
THE IRISH TIMES
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