Calum Laming, the Chief Customer Officer at British Airways, has left the role after less than four years, and the airline has yet to even begin searching for a successor, it has been revealed.
Laming held what is potentially one of the trickiest jobs in modern-day aviation – trying to improve the passenger experience at the same time that the airline’s primary and overriding focus is on slashing costs at every opportunity.
He is set to officially leave the airline at the end of March 2026, but, in the meantime, sources claim he has taken a backseat, and there’s no successor lined up to take on the role.
According to the airline, Laming only ever intended to take on the mammoth role for three to four years because it can be so demanding. Having been parachuted into the job in June 2022, this makes the announced timeline pretty clear.
BA chief executive Sean Doyle said Laming came with a “compelling vision on how to move our business and brand forward.”
Laming will, perhaps, be best known for creating the airline’s confusing ‘British Original’ advertising concept. During his tenure, he also presided over the airline’s disastrous ‘Brunchgate’ scandal in which British Airways tried to get away with serving breakfast instead of lunch in Business Class on long-haul flights.
There are, however, some big achievements to Laming’s name during his time at British Airways.
Frequent flyers have praised the unveiling of new premium lounges in Dubai and Miami, which will act as a template for a global upgrade project, which will include a complete refurbishment of the airline’s massive lounge network at its Heathrow hub.
Laming also oversaw the redesign of its short-haul fleet cabins, oversaw the redesign of a new First Class seat that will debut on the Airbus A380 next year, and got British Airways to embrace Christmas like never before.
He started his career at BA’s defunct low-cost subsidiary GO Fly, where he initially worked part-time in a call center and at the airport before becoming a member of cabin crew at the airline. Laming was the senior cabin crew member on the airline’s last ever flight in April 2003.
He then went on to work in a number of brand and marketing roles at Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand, and Etihad Airways before landing at Vueling, which is also owned by BA’s parent company, IAG, as its chief customer officer.
It remains unclear what Laming has planned for the future.
Who is next for the role is also very unclear. British Airways has a habit of cycling through people in this position every few years. Laming’s predecessor, Tom Stevens, was only in the role for little more than a year, and before him, Carolina Martinoli held the position for five years.
Martinoli was the person behind BA’s decision to bring DO&Co on board as the airline’s caterer of choice, although she left British Airways to take on a senior position at IAG before taking the helm at Vueling.
If reporting from the frequent flyer blog Head For Points is accurate, Martinoli is being lined up to take over from Sean Doyle at some point. Watch this space.
