One of aviation’s most compelling characters is heading into the departures lounge, with the imminent retirement of Willie Walsh at 58.
The International Airlines Group he led was a creature of his own invention, having steered British Airways into a controversial merger with Iberia. While some criticised the 2011 deal, Walsh has relentlessly pursued the logic of consolidation, and seen IAG become one of the few airline groups to consistently make billions in profits.
Comparatively measured and precise in his public pronouncements, Walsh was nonetheless unafraid to court controversy or bloody-mindedly go his own way.
Starting out as a pilot, Walsh’s career was that of a classic poacher-turned-gamekeeper: a combative figure in the Irish pilots’ union, before taking the helm of Aer Lingus as CEO and ruthlessly shedding jobs and cutting costs. At BA, he faced down a bitter cabin crew strike and established a new division, the Mixed Fleet, to force through changes to terms and conditions.
After the Icelandic volcanic eruption prompted regulators to ground flights in the UK, Walsh took to the air with a small crew to challenge safety concerns about the ash cloud.
Having at one point championed Heathrow expansion, before the third runway scheme was cancelled in 2010, he refused to get involved again during the long debates of the following decade, declaring that the Airports Commission report would simply gather dust.
In 2017, when airlines had been warning of the dire potential disruption from Brexit, Walsh turned up at a key Commons hearing and flatly said he expected no problem.
And last summer, while Boeing struggled to assure regulators – let alone airlines and the public – that its 737 Max plane was safe after two crashes, Walsh took the opportunity to order 200 of the aircraft at knock-down prices.
In an industry reshaped by the rock-bottom economics of his fellow Irishman Michael O’Leary at Ryanair, Walsh has guided BA into an uneasy accommodation between full customer service and low fares. While the airline’s own chief executives were ostensibly in charge of decisions, Walsh let it be known that he was unimpressed with how the current CEO at BA, Alex Cruz, tackled relations with pilots, leading to strikes last September.
Walsh once said he would leave the industry at 55, but since professed to rethink early retirement, and played his cards close to his chest before suddenly bringing forward his exit date. Drastic weight loss a few years back led to questions, but it turned out to be another example of single-minded cutbacks – fewer cappuccinos and sugar-packed treats, Walsh said.
Among airline bosses, Walsh led the way in announcing a net-zero carbon pledge last year, as the environmental impact of aviation took centre stage. While he would not be the first departing boss to fret over a greener legacy, Walsh had long been one of the voices within the industry to warn that, even if only in self-interest, aviation needed to be seen to be acting on CO2.
His personal carbon footprint is unlikely to shrink entirely: the urge to quit, Walsh has divulged, partly came as he had hardly seen anything, bar the airports, of the global cities he has flown to so many times.
