HAMBURG (Reuters) - Airbus' (PA:AIR) long-serving sales chief John Leahy plans to stay on until a successor is found, with a decision expected within the next week or so, he told Reuters on Friday.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Airbus has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief and that Leahy's deputy, Kiran Rao, had confirmed he would not be running for the post.
"I will stay until we have a successor on board. I'm not going to walk out the door after all these years at Airbus," Leahy said, speaking after Airbus delivered Emirates' 100th A380 jet.
He said he had spoken with Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders on Thursday evening and that Enders was "determined to make a decision within the next week or something", with one leading internal and one leading external candidate in the race.
Leahy was initially preparing to retire in September but said Enders had asked him to stay on until the end of the year, because a lot of things were happening, such as the deal to take a majority stake in the Bombardier (TO:BBDb) CSeries programme.
Leahy added he expected the new manager to be on board by the end of the year, so that he could hand over in January or February.