Carey, who has been easyJet’s chief commercial and strategy officer since 2017, takes on the newly created post of president at Wizz Air. He will oversee operations and commercial functions and lead business and competitive strategy.

Before easyJet, Carey spent more than a decade at management consultants McKinsey. His chief commercial officer role at easyJet has been taken by Sophie Dekkers.

Another new appointment, executive vice-president and group chief operations officer, been filled by Michael Delehant, who will start in July.

Wizz Air said Diederik Pen, currently in this role, “will be stepping down from his position to pursue other interests outside of the company”.

Wizz chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: “I would like to thank Diederik for his relentless commitment and personal leadership in the past eight years. He has been instrumental to the development of the airline and led the induction of 100 aircraft into the Wizz fleet. I wish him and his family all the best in their future endeavours.”

Delehant will be accountable for operational activities and performance, regulatory and safety requirements, plus financial budgets and company procedures.

Delehant was previously chief strategy and network officer at IAG’s budget carrier Vueling. Both men will report directly to Varadi.

Varadi added: “We are further enhancing our leadership capacity as Wizz Air continues to demonstrate outstanding agility in the pursuit of being the ultimate structural cost winner in the industry.”