BA Digs Down Under For New CEO

<B>BA Digs Down Under For New CEO</B>

British Airways today officially has a new chief executive as Rod Eddington takes the reins of Europe's largest airline. Eddington takes over for BA chairman Colin Marshall, who has led the airline in the interim since mid-March when then-CEO Robert Ayling stepped down.

As a long-time commercial aviation executive, Australian-born Eddington leaves behind his responsibilities as executive chairman at Ansett Australia and deputy chairman of News Ltd., both under the News Corp. umbrella. According to BA, Eddington led Ansett Australia through a business recovery program that brought the carrier back to profitability while preparing it for upcoming integration with Air New Zealand.

Prior to his work down under, Eddington, 50, had an 18-year stint with Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific, finishing as the carrier's managing director.

As the top man at BA, Eddington will have lofty expectations to meet as one of the world's premier airlines has suffered through comparatively turbulent financial times of late, prompting an aggressive cost-cutting and capacity-reducing plan. He also will have to define BA's role in a rather unsettled alliance environment as BA and American Airlines renew their efforts at integration. Alliance efforts will focus not only on AA-BA cooperation, but also on the larger Oneworld partnership, which ironically includes Cathay Pacific but competes against Ansett Australia and its Star Alliance friends.

Furthermore, Eddington will have to find ways to keep the carrier profitable amidst continuing transatlantic overcapacity and an onslaught of low-fare carriers in Europe. "This is a global business and an increasingly competitive one. We have to provide the right products and services in order to maintain and extend our competitive advantage," he said last week, following his appointment.

In a statement, Lord Marshall said, "He has a well-deserved reputation in the airline industry for his leadership and people and management skills. To run British Airways, the board looked for someone who knew how to run a large organization with millions of customers and who had the experience of working in different countries with different cultures. Rod has these qualities."

Eddington, who immediately had been identified as a possible successor to Ayling, will remain on the board of News Corp. However, he will not join the board of Qantas--an alliance partner 25 percent owned by British Airways--until at least next year to avoid confidentiality issues associated with Qantas's competition against Ansett in the Australian market.