Aer Lingus chief executive to step down next year

DUBLIN, July 18 (Reuters) - Aer Lingus Chief Executive Christoph Mueller will step down in May 2015 after turning the Irish airline profitable and resisting a fresh takeover attempt by larger rival Ryanair in his five years in charge.

A former aviation director at TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) , the German took over the then loss-making former state airline in October 2009 and cut costs aggressively as Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's financial crisis saw passengers and fares drop dramatically.

He rejected a third attempt by Ryanair to buy the airline in 2012 and the European Commission blocked the deal last year, saying Ryanair, the largest shareholder in Aer Lingus (Other OTC: AELGF - news) with a 30 percent holding, had not offered sufficient concessions to allay concerns about the combined company's dominance.

"We will be very sorry to see Christoph leave Aer Lingus in 2015. Under Christoph's strategic leadership, Aer Lingus has been transformed into a strong, consistently profitable airline with a clear strategic direction," Aer Lingus Chairman Colm Barrington said in a statement.

Mueller's cost cutting plans have also been consistently resisted by some workers and Aer Lingus said last month that recent threats of further strikes by cabin crew had damaged bookings for the next few months and it expected operating profit to be 10 to 20 percent lower than last year.

The announcement follows chief financial officer Andrew Macfarlane's decision to leave in March. His successor, Bernard Bot, was announced last week and will take up the job in September.

"We view this news as surprising given the close proximity to other announcements of departures from the airline's list of executives and also believe that it will have negative implications for Aer Lingus going forward," said analyst David Holohan at Merrion Stockbrokers, which has a "hold" rating on Aer Lingus shares. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)