Luis Gallego to Succeed Willie Walsh as CEO of IAG

Luis Gallego is to succeed Willie Walsh as International Airlines Group’s (IAG) chief executive, effective 24 September 2020.

A graduate in aeronautical engineering from Madrid’s Universidad Politécnica and in business management from the IESE business school, Luis began his professional career training officers in the Spanish Air Force.

He later worked with Aviaco, INDRA and from 1997 to 2006 held several positions at Air Nostrum, before becoming Production Manager at Clickair which eventually merged into Vueling.

In 2012, Iberia assigned Luis to set up and launch the Iberia Express unit, of which he was CEO until March, 2013, when he was appointed CEO of the entire Iberia airline group, becoming Executive Chairman in 2014.

Luis is a member of the executive committee of IAG, the holding company that owns Iberia, Aer Lingus, British Airways and Vueling.

Antonio Vazquez, IAG’s chairman, said, “We announced in March that Willie would delay his retirement for a short period. We can now confirm that Luis Gallego will take over the leadership on 24 September, the expected date for IAG’s AGM, when Willie will step down as CEO. We are grateful that Willie delayed his retirement at this challenging time providing the airlines’ management with the necessary stability to focus on the immediate response to the crisis. We look forward to working closely with Luis in his new role.”

Launched in 2011, IAG has 598 aircraft that would in pre-COVID19 times fly to to 279 destinations globally, carrying approximately 118 million passengers each year.

See latest Travel News, Video Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: COVID19, IAG, CEO.