Sean Doyle: A soft-spoken insider to lead an airline in crisis

Sean Doyle, the newly appointed boss of BA, has held on to a sense of perspective even as his industry crumbles around him. Earlier this year, while still boss of Ireland’s Aer Lingus, he observed the sweeping disruption caused by coronavirus: “Being an airline chief executive is tough at the moment,” he said. “But I would rather be an airline CEO than an intensive care nurse or intensive care doctor.” The measured tone has come to characterise the Irishman’s management style over a two-decade career in aviation that has been spent almost entirely out of the spotlight. A low-profile executive with a reputation for an analytical brain and encyclopedic knowledge of the industry, Doyle has now been thrust into one of the most demanding jobs in corporate Britain: the national flag carrier, still stirs up a rare level of passion, scrutiny and invective. British Airways is familiar turf. The fair-haired 49-year-old had spent 20 years at the airline before joining Aer Lingus in January 2019. He returns following the removal of the company’s beleaguered CE Alex Cruz this week by IAG, its parent group, which also owns Aer Lingus, Spain’s Iberia and several other airlines. BA has been shaken by the coronavirus crisis and a turbulent four-and-a-half years under Cruz that will be remembered for a series of public relations disasters including IT failures, a significant data breach and the airline’s first pilots’ strike. Its business model was finely tuned to take advantage of the profits on long-haul and business class travel. But that has left it brutally exposed to those parts of the market now worst hit by the pandemic. Even as its rivals cut thousands of jobs to survive the crisis, BA has attracted particular criticism for the treatment of its cabin crew, and was dubbed “a national disgrace” by British politicians. Story has more.<br/>