Peter Bellew Returns to Ryanair as Chief Operations Officer

Ryanair’s former director of flight operations, Peter Bellew, as of December 1, 2017, will return to the company as chief operations officer.

The company’s current chief operating officer Michael Hickey is leaving Ryanair, after a rostering debacle forced the airline to cancel thousands of flights, affecting the travel plans of thousands of passengers.

Peter Bellew

Bellew, who is currently the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, will take over responsibility for all Ryanair’s flight operations, ground operations and engineering but with a specific responsibility for pilot production, training and career development. “His mission is to ensure that the pilot rostering failure which Ryanair suffered in early September will never be repeated,” the company said in announcement.

“Peter will lead a significant transformation in the way we reward and interact with our pilots, improve their working environment and career development over the coming years as we grow the fleet to some 600 aircraft and expand our traffic, at lower fares, to 200 million customers annually,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary.

Bellew, who worked in Ryanair until 2014 as director of flight operations, will join the Ryanair team in Dublin. “I am excited to return home to Ryanair and take up the challenge to grow the operation sustainably,” he said.