This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the British Airways and Iberia owner, International Airlines Group, is to stand down from the post in March. He will be succeeded by Luis Gallego, the Iberia chief executive.

IAG said Walsh, 58, would quit as CEO on 26 March and officially retire on 30 June. He announced in late October that he would step down within two years, after 15 years at BA.

The parent group, IAG, also owns the Irish airline Aer Lingus and other budget carriers, including Spain’s Vueling.

Walsh joined Aer Lingus in 1979 as a cadet pilot and became chief executive in 2001. At the then-government-controlled airline he was known as “Slasher” Walsh for cutting 2,500 jobs and turning the loss-making carrier around.

Four years later he was named boss of BA and in 2011 led the merger of the airline with Spain’s Iberia to create IAG. He then became chief executive of the group.

Although the merger was initially controversial with shareholders, IAG has become one of the most profitable airline groups around, reporting pre-tax annual profits of €3.2bn last February and expecting to post similar results for 2019 despite losses from industrial action.

Last year BA suffered one of the most damaging industrial disputes in its history, which included two days of strikes by pilots in September and the cancellation of 2,325 flights, which cost the carrier £121m.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Luis Gallego, who will succeed Willie Walsh at the head of IAG. Photograph: Andrea Comas/Reuters

Pilots voted to settle the dispute over pay and conditions in mid-December.

Álex Cruz, the boss of BA, had been tipped as a possible successor to Walsh but his chances of taking the top job were likely to have been damaged by the long-running dispute.

Instead, Gallego, who started his airline career in 1997 with the Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum, takes the reins. He has been chief executive of Iberia since 2014, where he steered through mass redundancies amid a controversial restructuring of the Spanish flag carrier.

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Walsh said Gallego had “been a core member of the team and has shown true leadership over the years”.

Antonio Vázquez, the IAG chairman, said: “Willie has led the merger and successful integration of British Airways and Iberia to form IAG. Under Willie’s leadership IAG has become one of the leading global airline groups.”

Walsh said: “It has been a privilege to have been instrumental in the creation and development of IAG.”

One of the first jobs in Gallego’s in-tray will be to push through IAG’s €1bn takeover of Air Europa, another Spanish airline, which has attracted objection on competition grounds.