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Bloomberg
Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Operating Officer (COO) Michael Hickey will step down from Europe’s biggest discount carrier after a management misstep resulted in the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights into next summer. Hickey will step down at the end of October, the airline said.
A search to identify and recruit a successor is underway.
Ryanair’s botched rosters has affected flights for about 700,000 customers and reduced the company’s growth plans by 6 million passengers this year and next. CEO Michael O’Leary has taken much of the responsibility for the mismanagement of its pilots’ annual leave requirements that had left Ryanair without enough cockpit crew to operate its full schedules. “Over the past 30 years Mick Hickey has made an enormous contribution to Ryanair,†O’Leary said. Hickey will conclude “a number of large projects†before leaving like arranging an engine maintenance contract and new hangars in Madrid and Seville, Spain, O’Leary said.