Ryanair PLC (LON:RYA) is bringing back its former flight operations director Peter Bellew as the under-pressure budget airline looks to avoid a repeat of the recent pilot rostering failures which led to it cancelling thousands of flights.
The Dublin-based group was forced to cancel 2,100 flights in September and October as well as a further 18,000 over the rest of the winter season due to a cock-up in pilot holiday rosters.
There have also been murmurs of discontent from former pilots over pay and working conditions, with reports that some had defected to rivals such as Norwegian Air.
READ: Ryanair boss promises pilots "significant improvements" in pay and conditions
Bellew – who is currently the boss of Malaysia Airlines – will officially take up his new position as chief operations officer on 1 December and will be responsible for all of Ryanair’s flight operations, ground operations and engineering.
He has also been given the “specific responsibility” for pilot production, training and career development, as well as the “mission” of ensuring that the recent rostering issues don’t rear their heads again.
“Having worked previously in a senior role in our operations team, Peter has an unrivalled knowledge of our business model and how we maintain controlled growth, with industry leading punctuality, for the benefit of our customers and our people,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary.
“Peter will lead a significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots, improve their working environment and career development over the coming years as we grow the fleet to some 600 aircraft and expand our traffic, at lower fares, to 200mln customers p.a.”
Ryanair shares were up 0.7% to €16.69 in late afternoon trading on Tuesday.