Malaysia Airlines CEO to return to Ryanair to help fix pilot problems
DU BL IN/ S I NGAPOR E : Malaysia Airlines chief executive officer ( CEO) Peter Bellew is leaving after just over a year in charge to return to Ryanair as chief operations officer ( COO) to tackle the pilot shortages that has resulted in Ryanair cancelling more than 20,000 flights over the winter season.
The move means that Malaysia will have to appoint a third CEO in three years as it continues to recover from two tragedies in 2014 – when flight MH370 disappeared in what remains a mystery; and fl ight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
For Ryanair, Bellew’s return on Dec 1 comes as Europe’s busiest airl ine is trying to recruit additional pilots and persuade existing pilots to stay with the offer of new, improved conditions to avoid a repeat of the cancellations.
Bellew was the director of flight operations at Ryanair before he left in 2014. He joined Malaysia Airlines as chief operations officer (COO) in September 2015 and took over as CEO in July last year.
Ryanair said Bellew would be given a specific responsibility for managing pilots.
“His mission will be to ensure that the pilot rostering failure, which Ryanair suffered in early September, never be repeated,” the company said in a statement.
Ryanair has announced the cancellation of around 20,000 flights after admitting that it did not have enough standby pilots to operate a reliable schedule.
Irish stockbroker Goodbody last week said in a note that Bellew was well regarded in the industry and ‘is thought to have had a good relationship with the pilots when he was there’.
In recent weeks pilots at Ryanair, which does not recognise any labour union, have been getting together on social media to lobby for a major overhaul of the company’s employment conditions.
Bellew’s decision to leave Malaysia Airlines comes just over a year after former CEO Christoph Mueller left the airline, citing ‘personal circumstances’, a year after being hired on a threeyear mission to revive the statecontrolled fi rm.
Mueller later joined Emirates as its chief digital and transformation officer. Under Bellew’s leadership, the Malaysian national carrier has been restructuring its fleet.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines in a statement yesterday said Ryanair’s announcement that it had hired Bellew was ‘unexpected’, adding that its board would meet to discuss the move.
“At a press conference with Malaysian and international media on Sept 27, 2017, Bellew had expressed his commitment to Malaysia Airlines,” Malaysia Airlines said.
“The turnaround of Malaysia Airlines remains on track and on schedule,” it added. — Reuters