Aer Lingus has promoted Stephen Kavanagh, a long-standing employee, to the role of chief executive as the airline faces a £1bn bid from the owner of British Airways.
The Dublin-based airline – in which the Irish government owns a 25% stake – needed a new boss following the resignation of Christoph Mueller who is taking the top job at Malaysia Airlines.
Kavanagh has spent 26 years with Aer Lingus and holds the role of chief strategy and planning officer. A graduate of University College Dublin who has had number of roles in operations and commercial departments, Kavanagh will take up the top role on 1 March after Mueller leaves.
Kavanagh worked on Aer Lingus’s stock market flotation in 2006 and takes the helm at a time when the airline is at the receiving end of a bid from IAG, the owner of British Airways and the Spanish airline Iberia. The management has said it is willing to accept the takeover, subject to some conditions.
Whether the deal goes ahead hinges on major investors Ryanair, owner of just under 30% of the shares, and the Irish government, which is expected to want clarification on plans for a key Dublin to Heathrow route.
Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington, said last week: “The strong view of the board of Aer Lingus is that the prospect of Aer Lingus being part of the IAG Group has a compelling commercial logic for Aer Lingus, has significantly positive benefits for Ireland and is strongly supportive of the Irish government’s two airline policy.”
An earlier offer, made in December, had been rejected on the basis that it undervalued the business.
On the appointment of Kavanagh, Barrington said: “I am particularly pleased that it has been possible and appropriate for an internal Aer Lingus executive to succeed to the position of chief executive.”
The IAG boss Willie Walsh ran Aer Lingus, which employs 3,900 people, between 2001 and 2005 and is interested in the airline because it could provide more runway slots at Heathrow and allow opportunities for cost-cutting.
