When Willie Walsh left Aer Lingus to run British Airways in 2005, Alan Joyce turned down the chance of returning from Australia to his homeland to take over. Almost a decade earlier he had left Aer Lingus, where he and Mr Walsh had worked together, to join the now-defunct Ansett under Rod Eddington, who later ran BA. He recommended Mr Joyce to Geoff Dixon, then Qantas’s chief executive, who took his advice and made him head of network operations for Qantas in 2000.

Mr Joyce, 42, became chief executive of Jetstar, Qantas’s low-cost operation, three years later. He had been considered an outsider to replace Mr Dixon this year, but was thought to have impressed directors by transforming Jetstar from a discount operation with 14 aircraft to one that spans Australia and includes destinations as far-flung as Asia and Hawaii. He took over from Mr Dixon, whom Qantas insiders say referred to Mr Joyce as “my little Irishman”, on Sunday.

Mr Joyce was born and raised in a large working-class family in Dublin and excelled at Trinity College, Dublin. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Science (Physics and Mathematics) (Honours) and a Master of Science in Management Science. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Willie Walsh could fly an aircraft before he could drive a car. He joined Aer Lingus as a cadet pilot at the age of 18 in 1979 and had risen to captain by 1990. Around that time, he made a move into management, when he worked with Alan Joyce, and in 1998 he was appointed chief executive of Futura, Aer Lingus’s Spanish charter airline. Three years later, aged 40, he became the chief executive of Aer Lingus, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Faced with bankruptcy and mounting losses, Mr Walsh radically restructured the airline, generating a profit of €107 million in 2004.

His cost-cutting pedigree helped him to win the role of chief executive at British Airways when the now-knighted Rod Eddington left in 2005. The past three years have been turbulent for Mr Walsh. He has had to deal with crises that have been largely beyond his control, including the shutdown of Heathrow in 2006 because of a threatened terrorist attack, and criticism of BAA, the airports operator, for providing poor services.

Like all airlines, BA has been hit by the economic downturn. It is cutting the number of flights it offers this winter and is reducing costs. A fall in passenger numbers led to pretax profits falling by 92 per cent to £52 million in the six months to September 30.

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