International Airlines Group (IAG) has appointed current Vueling chairman and CEO Javier Sanchez-Prieto as the new chairman and chief executive of Iberia, with Marco Sansavini taking his place at the former airline.
The appointments come after current Iberia CEO Luis Gallego was appointed to succeed Willie Walsh as chief executive of IAG when he steps down next month after nine years on the job.
Sanchez-Prieto has been the head of Vueling for the past three years. He was previously strategic planning and finance director at Iberia from 2013-2016, where IAG says he was “instrumental” in the airline’s financial turnaround. Prior to this, he was CFO at Iberia Express when in formed in 2012, before which he spent several years working at the Uralita Group and Air Nostrum.
Sanchez-Prieto said: “It’s a great honour to have been asked to lead Iberia. The airline has undertaken an outstanding transformation and my objective is to ensure it goes from strength to strength.”
Meanwhile, Sansavini has been CCO at Iberia for seen years, where he led the airline’s commercial and brand transformation. Previously, he worked in senior commercial and strategic roles at Alitalia and Air France-KLM.
Sansavini said: “In the past seven years I’ve had a unique opportunity to work side by side with a great team under Luis’ leadership. I’m delighted to accept the role at Vueling and look forward to continue developing its successful business model in the future.”
Commenting on the appointments, Luis Gallego said: “Both Javier and Marco have considerable knowledge and experience of the Spanish and international markets. I’m delighted that they will be part of my team when I take up my new role and I’m confident they will continue to develop their airlines’ successful strategies.”
Willie Walsh added: “I’d like to congratulate Javier and Marco on their new roles and am absolutely confident that they are the right people to lead Iberia and Vueling. Both have worked in the group for several years and have fantastic track records, proving once again that we have extremely talented people internally that we are able to promote to our top jobs.”
iairgroup.com