Aer Lingus appoints former TUI exec Mueller as CEO

By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish airline Aer Lingus Group ended a three-month search for a chief executive on Friday by appointing Christoph Mueller, a former aviation director at TUI Travel.

Mueller, 47, has also held senior positions in Daimler Benz Aerospace, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Sabena, DHL and Deutsche Post, Aer Lingus said. He will take up the post in October.

The appointment removed some uncertainty about the airline's future but investors still await the announcement of its new strategy to reverse losses.

"He has some stellar names on his CV," said analyst Neil Glynn at brokerage NCB. "From that point of view it looks like a good appointment ... Clearly the bigger issue is the extent of restructuring that needs to happen."

The appointment comes after Dermot Mannion resigned in April as CEO of the loss-making former Irish state carrier, of which rival Ryanair and the government are the two biggest shareholders, owning almost 55 percent between them.

Shares in Aer Lingus rose 3.4 percent to 0.548 euros by 1342 GMT (2:42 p.m. British time), outperforming a 0.3 percent higher Irish market but still fetching less than half of the 1.4 euros Ryanair offered last year in its second failed hostile bid for its Dublin neighbour.

Both of Ryanair's takeover attempts failed because of resistance from the government or Brussels on competition grounds, but the European Union's antitrust chief said she could not rule out ever allowing a future bid by Ryanair.

"Never ever use the word never," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told a news conference in Dublin. "It depends on the proposal and it depends on what guarantee there is for competition."

(Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Holmes and Mike Nesbit)