IAG: Willie Walsh hands controls to Luis Gallego

IAG's successes cannot all be attributed to one person, but no one has done more than Willie Walsh to establish IAG as the most consistently profitable and strategically progressive legacy airline group in Europe.

His nine years as IAG CEO, starting when British Airways and Iberia merged to form the group in Jan-2011, will end in Mar-2020. His has been a remarkable career in which he did much to transform the shape of European and global aviation. Iberia CEO Luis Gallego is promoted to replace him.

Mr Walsh leaves IAG financially successful with a range of strong brands in different market segments. IAG leads in the world's biggest aviation market, London; is the largest airline group on both the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic; and has the biggest LCC division among Europe's legacy groups.

The doctrine of return on invested capital exceeding the cost of capital now has a firm foundation in the airline industry. Mr Walsh has been a leading preacher of this creed, contributing to the financial transformation of the industry.

He is also contributing to the transformation of aviation's environmental impact. IAG became the world's first airline group to commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This has prompted others also to improve on the airline industry's long held target to halve emissions by 2050.