Willie Walsh quits as IAG CEO and BA CEO Alex Cruz is passed over for the job

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• bill says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:40

  i wonder where Mr Walsh is going to ?

  • bill says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:41

    just realised – the story says retirement

    • Lady London says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:18

      and a few directorships I suppose

• marcw says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:42

  Iberia was NOT acquired by IAG.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:44

    True. Will adjust. Teach me to write articles on an iPad in Pret.

    • Keep EAT! says:

      9 Jan9 January 08:58

      Ipad. Pret. Two bad items there straight away bound to cause mistakes!!

    • idrive says:

      9 Jan9 January 13:06

      Rob, get a cheap Bluetooth slim aluminum keyboard on Amazon and connect it to the Ipad.
      But first, please make sure you click on HFP link so to grant a small commission! 🙂

• marcw says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:45

  I feel that Alex Cruz knows he hasn’t finished its job at BA. Still many things to do.

  As you describe, Gallego successfully turned around IB. But now it’s time for another one to lead the integration with Air Europa (if approved) and focuses on another aspects like customer service, quality, IT and growth.

  • Ian says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:33

    A cynic might unfortunately agree that he hasn’t yet finished the job at BA: he hasn’t yet quite destroyed what was once a fine airline.

    • marcw says:

      9 Jan9 January 09:40

      We can argue about many things. But BA is today way better than it was 10 years ago. Accesible (cheaper), more routes (how many NEW destinations have been launched under the leadership of Alex Cruz?) and frequencies, new planes and better product (Club Suite). Lounges are now under review plus a few other things going underway.

      • lebron 23 says:

        9 Jan9 January 10:06

        if taken in isolation, you are probably correct. however, what is actually relevant is BA compared to its competitiors 10 years ago compared to today. if you examine that metric, you will come up with a very different outcome.

        • marcw says:

          9 Jan9 January 10:32

          It’s not a world leading airline anymore – neither it’s the best airlines in the world. But should it be?

          Competition has changed dramatically over the last decade. Look at low-cost market share…

        • lebron 23 says:

          9 Jan9 January 10:54

          actually…I have thought further about this

          even in isolation ba is not better than 10 years ago… the.vast majority of the planes, the lounges and the Worldwide fleet hags are all 10 years older.

          🙂

        • marcw says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:02

          I guess for you @lebreo23 more destinations, more frequencies, better prices (accesible), First Wing, new planes (787, 350, 380, 320neo), club Suite, Do&Co… all in the last 10 years.

• aston100 says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:46

  If I recall correctly, in The Godfather II, Fredo was passed over for the top job. It didn’t end well for him.

  • Cat says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:18

    😂🤣
    (although I think, technically, Fredo was passed over at the end of part I)

• Juan says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:52

  Hello Rob,
  Another happy reader just pointing out that Iberia was not acquired by IAG. Thanks for your great work!

• AlexT says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:52

  Good riddance… and let’s be frank – Gallego has achieved far more in his time at the helm of Iberia than Cruz at BA. Granted, BA bought IB at the height of the PIGS crisis, so business was far more likely to rebound, but still.

  Tally of achievements over the past couple of years:

  IB – renewed fleet, new hard product rolled out, new stunning lounge complex in MAD

  BA – some new planes, a couple of which has a new hard product LONG overdue, lounges getting more and more shabby with a few out stations upgraded

  • callum says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:34

    You can’t seriously think that’s a logical comparison?

    • AlexT says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:01

      Of course I can. The two airlines have taken markedly different approaches over the past decade even while operating under the same corporate umbrella. Granted, part of that has to do with BA’s monopolistic position at LHR…

      • callum says:

        9 Jan9 January 10:28

        They’ve taken “different approaches” because they’re completely different airlines which were at completely different junctions…

        Iberia needed to recover, BA was already doing fine and needed to maintain itself – which Cruz has done, increasing passenger numbers and increasing profit.

        There are very few other industries where customers take such strong stances on whether they like the CEO or not (despite knowing almost nothing about the business itself), or who even know who the CEO is – it’s incredibly bizarre.

        • AlexT says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:00

          IB didn’t need new lounges, fleet, and hard product to recover. It would have recovered just fine in parallel with the Spanish economy. Yet it pushed for the above modernization nonetheless, while BA mostly exploited its dominant position at LHR and the underling captive non-connecting direct flight market.

          But if your superior “knowledge of the business itself” suggests otherwise, please do tell…

        • Rob says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:27

          I doubt it, to be honest. You only need to look at the cull in staff numbers. From the Capital Markets presentation in November:

          “Since 2011 Iberia has reduced its average headcount by 19%, while increasing capacity by 14% over the same time period”

          That didn’t just happen by magic with an improving economy.

        • Callum says:

          9 Jan9 January 19:01

          I don’t know much about the business – the key difference between us is that I’m not pretending I do.

          I know that most of the BA changes people throw hissy fits about were logical from a business perspective. I know that despite the never-ending “this is it! BA have gone too far and will suffer” claims, it’s continually flying more passengers with a greater load and higher profit.

          In fact, the vast majority of criticism I see of BA day-to-day on this site applies equally to Iberia.

      • Catalan says:

        9 Jan9 January 10:37

        @AlexT. You’re greatly misinformed. BA did not buy Iberia. They merged to form IAG.
        I’m not sure when you last visited MAD. Though the lounge has recently been refurbished I wouldn’t exactly call it stunning. Flying back to London on an evening flight last month I found the food in that ‘stunning’ lounge to be dire.
        I think your enthusiasm to poor cold water on BA should be measured when attempting to ‘big-up’ IB.

        • Rob says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:01

          Not really. Legally, yes, that is what happened. In reality BA took over Iberia. It was political reasons which dressed it up as a merger and put the head office in Madrid (nominally) even though everything is done at Waterside.

        • AlexT says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:12

          In the years I’ve worked in finance, I’ve rarely seen the M part of M&A actually happen. More often than not, what is advertised as a merger is an acquisition by another name.

          Was in MAD last week, and the T4S lounge (Velasquez?) is light years ahead of BA’s lounge complex at LHR, through which I pass every other week – showers, rest pods, food. The catering at LRH is so bad, I tend to buy a Boots sandwich for the flight now instead of eating in the lounge. The First lounge is better, but that is really not comparing apples to apples… and the showers and toilers are worse… plus no rest pods.

        • Doug M says:

          9 Jan9 January 11:22

          But asymmetric mergers are often takeovers in disguise, and it’s not always the dominate partner or culture that ends up running things. If you want another example how about Boeing merging with McDonnell-Douglas. MD’s practices eroded Boeing’s engineering culture and that led to the Max and where they are now. Very simplified version.

  • Mark says:

    9 Jan9 January 13:13

    I’m a bit confused about the “stunning” IB lounge comments. I was in the lounge in MAD T4S a couple of times in Sep/Oct, once early morning and the second time early-mid afternoon.

    I thought the food selection was quite poor. Very limited hot breakfast options for example. Showers are larger than BA’s pods, but the second time we went in there was no hot water.

    The lounge itself was fine to spend a couple of hours in, and less busy than the lounges at LHR T5A get, but I’d hardly call it stunning.

    Maybe the lounges in the main T4 building are better?

    • Kenny says:

      9 Jan9 January 13:32

      Really bad. Was there on Mon, to board via S gates. Lounge in the middle of the duty free shop. Very bad selection of hot food. This was from LHR->Mad->Mexico City. Shower, liquor are good. But hot food … poor.

• Riccatti says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:11

  Iberia is the airline with no customer service.

  I personally had situations when accommodations a line agent done were reversed and prohibitive notes in Spanish were inserted into bookings.

  On a last trip, I was first to board the plane and pointed to cabin crew to stop chatting and better focus on how to let the whole jet bridge of passengers to start boarding. The “nice” cabin manager went red faced and literally told me to “shut up”, in Spanish of course. We need more of those welcoming crews on board at BA.

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:23

    haha! 🙂

  • Lady London says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:15

    +1 on lack of customer service at IB. Impossible to get things fixed.

    Accor Customer dis-Service is still even worse though. Accor was notably missing from the HfP awards too.

    • Lady London says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:16

      miaow

      • Cat says:

        9 Jan9 January 16:41

        You called?

    • Rob says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:21

      That is more to do with their terrible loyalty programme however!

      • Pangolin says:

        9 Jan9 January 11:58

        Terrible loyalty scheme.
        Terrible CS.

        What’s not to love?

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jan9 January 12:20

          Free points & every single one gets converted to Iberia Avios – same for my wife – I’m quite fond of them

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jan9 January 12:26

          which also resets your Iberia Avios 3 years’ expiry, once converted

• Rooster says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:22

  OT: this comments section is like Groundhog Day everyday, I can never find a previous comment. Yes Rob may bash disqus but it’s better than standard Wordpress comments.

  • Peter K says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:38

    Don’t you use the search function to find a key word?
    I did that yesterday. It took a little while but I found what I wanted.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:15

    No it’s not, that’s why most sites that try it, ditch it.

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