Peter Bellew is leaving Malaysia Airlines after just over a year in charge as its CEO to return to Ryanair as COO and tackle a pilot shortage that has led to over 20,000 flight cancellations.
Bellew had been Ryanair’s director of flight operations until 2014 before joining Malaysia Airlines as COO in September 2015 and taking over Christopher Mueller as chief executive in July last year, according to a Reuters article.
With Ryanair under fire for the cancellation of 20,000 flights, a statement from the airline said that Bellew would specifically be responsible for managing pilots and “(ensuring) that the pilot rostering failure which Ryanair suffered in early September will never be repeated”.
Bellew will leave Malaysia Airlines in the midst a three-year turnaround programme at the airline, set back in recent years by high-profile incidents such as the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 and MH17 being shot down over eastern Ukraine.
Malaysia Airlines said the announcement was “unexpected”, with Bellew as recently as September 27 expressing commitment to the airline in response to speculation of him re-joining Ryanair. Bellew was quoted by Malaysia Airlines as saying that the airline’s turnaround would be “the greatest achievement of my life”.
The turnaround of Malaysia Airlines remains on track and on schedule, as per the MAS Recovery Plan, Malaysia Airlines assured.
The airline said it has over 100 direct entry pilot positions available at its home base in Dublin airport.