British Airways chief operating officer Jason Mahoney will have some of his responsibilities removed as he moves into a newly created role of Chief Technical Officer. Mahoney has been BA’s COO since early 2020 when his predecessor was ousted following the first pilot’s strike at the airline for more than 40 years.
Mahoney has faced his own criticism over the last few months as British Airways struggled to scale up its operations to meet the surge in travel demand following the easing of pandemic era restrictions.
As COO, Mahoney helped to orchestrate the airline’s mass workforce reduction at the start of the pandemic but the airline is now facing major staffing shortfalls which is severely hampering BA’s recovery.
Chief executive Sean Doyle was forced to admit in a recent staff memo that customers and staff were “rightly fed up” with BA’s performance over the last few weeks. He has promised major changes to get the operation back up and running following major IT outages and staff shortages.
Resetting operations has, however, led to more short-term pain as British Airways trimmed its schedule and cancelled flights en masse to reduce the demand on the business. The disruption, analysts have warned, could continue throughout the summer.
Mahoney started his career at British Airways as an engineering apprentice in 1989 and after stints at British Midland and the TUI Group, he returned to BA as Director of Engineering in 2016.
He stepped into the shoes of former COO Klaus Goersch in February 2020 who announced his departure for personal reasons. His resignation was, however, believed to be linked to a costly pilots strike.
A new COO is still being sought but Mahoney has already had many of his responsibilities removed while the hunt continues. He will now focus on the airline’s aircraft maintenance programme.
Earlier this year, BA announced new appointments for its Director of Business Recovery and Chief People Officer.
Unskilled management running this national airline into the ground. They should just promote those pathetic reps from HCCU aka Mixed Fleet Unite and watch BA turn to dust in seconds, just like their pathetic branch of dwindling members.
Jane (above) What an absurd comment.
It is true that BA is rife with middle management incompetencies and Sean Doyle is very misguided in thinking
that that layer of underqualified and grossly inept people are capable of pulling off his promise of A Better BA.
But why compound that by elevating your embittered target group? BASSA are shockingly quiet on one of the single
most important aspects of HCCU Agreement making many believe they are complicit in the problem. However, none
of this union talk is beneficial here.
They can change all they want at the top level. It;s the managers (for example) of cabin crew (and other departments but I don’t know them by name or example) who block and stifle real change and improvement because each one of them is entitled to their
own small opinion and run their little feifdoms.
Just to set the record straight Jason Mahoney was the chief negotiator that resulted in the pilot strike. I think a little better research is warranted here. BA has been on a downward slide for years and I don’t see any improvements.
You mention Klaus Goersch. One on a short list of outsiders who come into BA and leave quickly when they realize what it really is. This company is diseased like s pix that has finally started to show on the outside too. The only people who really care have no hope of making change because as the others commented leadership is by whose face fits and who can fill in the check boxes fastest not on education or proven experience.
BA is dead! As an existing employee on a low management grade – my experience and knowledge count for nothing. A chap called Benjamin Sehovic is stepping in to fill the gap for Heathrow.
This is the same man, who ran T3 into the ground – and you know the best thing? His sister also works for the airline – coincidence? Nope, both of them are the godchildren of…. Willie Walsh!
Naff all experience, just family ties. “Not what you know… its who you know”
The company is toxic and its senior management team are clueless, we’re running round in circles and we will continue to do so over the summer because they are all under the impression we can deliver 100% schedule on 45% of the resources. They are even offering us double time on overtime to get us to work – after cutting pur salaries by 12% – must be joking! Bunch of crooks