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Willie Walsh addresses staff and students as part of Aviation Guest Lecture series

Willie Walsh addresses staff and students as part of Aviation Guest Lecture series

Willie Walsh, the former Aer Lingus CEO and current Chief Executive of International Airline Group (IAG) addressed aviation students and staff as part of the Dublin City University Aviation Guest Lecture series today (Friday, December 16th).

In a wide ranging presentation, Willie Walsh urged students to take up the fantastic opportunities in the dynamic airline business which is “unrecognisable” from when he first joined it. He urged graduates, wherever they work, to always ask why an organisation undertook a task in a given way and whether the task was needed at all.

Mr. Walsh said he was delighted to see aviation recognised as a specific specialism at graduate level by the DCU Master’s in Aviation Leadership degree which offered a “fantastic opportunity” to equip managers to enter or be promoted in aviation, equipped with the intellectual tools to make a contribution to that industry.

Asked about a third runway in London, Mr. Walsh said the announced cost of the new Heathrow runway project was far too high, most of which was not the direct cost of the runway itself.

He criticised the form of airport regulation for giving the airport an incentive to maximise investment spending on which it would then earn a profit.

The DCU Master’s in Aviation Leadership was launched in 2015. This is its second year of its operation and the first cohort of graduates will complete their studies in Summer 2017.

The Aviation Master’s was recently shortlisted in the Academic Education category of the 2016 Aviation Industry Awards. It is the only qualification of its kind in Ireland, offered by the DCU Business School, an AACSB-accredited[1] business school at a top ’50 under 50’ university.

The Master’s degree aims to integrate aviation knowledge from across all the main sectors in aviation – including airlines, airports, and air traffic control – with an education in strategic management.

The course is open to graduates with relevant work experience and is offered part-time over two years to accommodate the schedules of working managers. The degree is taught by the academic staff of the Business School along with experienced aviation managers, including from Dublin airport, Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Emirates, the Air Corps, and the Irish Aviation Authority.

The Programme Director is the former Commissioner for Aviation Regulation in Ireland. The M.Sc. is offered under the auspices of the Dublin Aviation Institute (DAI), a joint venture between DCU and the daa (which operates Dublin airport), an initiative to bring together the educational and academic resources of DCU, on the one hand, and the airport training and operational expertise of the daa, on the other.

DCU also offers undergraduates a B.Sc. in Aviation Management, currently being taken by some 100 students. The first presentation in the Aviation Guest Lecture was given two months ago by Kevin Toland, Chief Executive of the daa. The second speaker was Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair CEO. 2017 speakers will include CEOs of airlines, and of finance and leasing companies, as well as senior public servants and policy makers.