Story ID: CB-Ryanair's CMO resigns 02102020
Ryanair Suffers Second Top Executive Departure
By: Cathy Buyck
Caption: The Irish low-cost carrier’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs resigned and will leave his post in April. 
Word Count: 274
Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, who was responsible for the Irish low-cost carrier’s comprehensive customer service overhaul and revamping its website, has resigned, marking Ryanair’s second senior management departure in recent months. The company’s COO, Peter Bellew, left the airline at the end of 2019 to join easyJet, although Ryanair is attempting to halt the move in court. The Irish High Court late last year rejected Ryanair’s application for an injunction to restrain its former COO from switching to its UK-based competitor for a period of at least 12 months, but Ryanair has appealed the ruling.

Jacobs’s resignation seems less contentious. “I will enjoy a summer off with family and then look for my next challenge. I will continue to be a customer and a big supporter of Ryanair,” he said in an emailed statement to AIN, confirming a Reuters report earlier on Monday. “I have decided to leave Ryanair after more than six enjoyable years in a great business. I am proud to have led the team that delivered huge improvements in digital and customer service under ‘Always Getting Better’ as the airline doubled in size,” he added.

Ryanair appointed Jacobs CMO in February 2014 to brush up the LCC’s feeble customer service perception and improve its archaic online booking facility.

“Kenny was the author of the successful 'Always Getting Better' brand six years ago when he first joined, and he has championed many of the successful customer service improvements we have launched in recent years, which has underpinned our successful growth and evolution,” said Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary.