Ryanair moves to beef up senior management

Ryanair has formally begun the process of beefing up its senior management team, which will include a specific new recruit to push the airline’s promised “softer” public image.

The company has advertised for two senior executives — a commercial director, with responsibility for things like new route development, traffic growth and airport negotiations; and a sales and marketing director.

The latter will be in direct charge of the airline’s image; via communications strategy, advertising and brand development. They will also become Ryanair’s main spokesperson. Both job ads have a closing date of Oct 25 for applications, with the successful candidates set to report directly to the airline’s chief, Michael O’Leary.

When asked at last month’s AGM about the succession plan for current deputy CEO/chief operating officer Michael Cawley, Mr O’Leary said the plan was to enlist two new senior directors, adding they could be promoted from inside the company. Mr Cawley is due to leave the company — albeit remaining on the board in a non-executive capacity — at the end of Ryanair’s current financial year, next March.

The remit for the new sales and marketing role also follows on from one of the central messages from Ryanair’s recent shareholder meeting: management has vowed to soften its image and act in a fairer manner when directly dealing with customer issues. Mr O’Leary said, last month, that the airline needed to portray “a softer image when we respond to, communicate to and attract customers”, adding that the company could “soften some of its harder edges” and rid itself of some of its “unwarranted robustness”.

He said the airline was planning to conduct its business in a “softer, more sensitive and caring manner” but its main customer performance metrics would remain punctuality, low cancellation levels and good response times to complaints.