Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet announced that its current CEO, Ed Sims, will retire at the end of the year.
“Ed has led WestJet through the worst crisis in aviation history and will see us through to the end of 2021,” said Chris Burley, the airline’s board chairman. “We owe our relative strength and stability in no small measure to Ed’s leadership and steady hand.”
The airline credited Mr. Sims with introducing the high-tech Boeing 787 Dreamliner to its fleet as well as having played a “critical” role in Onex’ Partners investment in the airline.
Mr. Sims, who has spent 35 years in the airline industry, joined the carrier in 2017 after a six-year stint as CEO of Airways, New Zealand’s government-owned but airline-funded air-traffic control organization. Prior to that he held multiple executive positions at Air New Zealand.
“The global pandemic and the ongoing travel restrictions have separated so many of us for so long from loved ones.,” Mr. Sims said in a statement. “With two children in New Zealand, I am prioritizing the needs of family.” Mr. Sims has not seen his children for almost two years due to the pandemic.
In 1985, Mr. Sims received a Masters degree in English from the University of Oxford.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
