British Airways
In November 2015, Cruz was hired by the CEO of International Airlines Group, Willie Walsh,[4] as the next CEO and chairman of British Airways, to begin in April 2016. International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, also owns Vueling. Cruz succeeded Keith Williams.[5]
In 2016 Cruz made 700 British Airways employees redundant when he closed down the airline's computer department. He then outsourced the company's computer systems to the Indian company Tata Consultancy Services, drawing negative comment from a trade unionist.[6] On 7 September 2018, British Airways announced that their online reservation systems had been accessed by an unauthorised third party. Between 21 August 2018 and 5 September 2018, the sensitive data of more than 420,000 British Airways customers was compromised. Initially, BA was fined £183 million by the Information Commissioner’s Office – a regulator – for the breach. However, in October 2020 a decision was granted to levy the fine, reducing it to £20 million.
In 2019 Álex Cruz de Llano oversaw the successful beginning of a UK air service to Pakistan, making it the first Western airline in the country for ten years.[7]
On the environmental impact of aviation, he said in August 2019 that British Airways and its competitors had to start "thinking about flying in different ways".[8]
In April 2020, during the global collapse in air travel brought along by the COVID-19 pandemic, he told British Airways' staff that he had set out plans to make up to 12,000 of them redundant. Unite the Union decried the move as "heartless", saying "to reject government support but then expect their own staff to pay the cost... is irresponsible, dangerous and destructive".[9]
On 12 October 2020, it was announced that Sean Doyle, CEO of Aer Lingus (also part of International Airlines Group (IAG)) would succeed Cruz as CEO of British Airways.[10] The move was carried out by IAG's new CEO Luis Gallego. There was a transition period in which he remained as non-executive chairman at British Airways[11] in the run-up to Doyle also taking over that role in April 2021.[12]
