Ayling makes surprise comeback as chairman of camping company

Bob Ayling yesterday made his City comeback nearly three years after he was ousted as the chief executive of British Airways.

Mr Ayling, who received a £2m pay-off and a £250,000-a-year pension from BA when he was forced out in March 2000, is to become chairman of the quoted holiday company Holidaybreak.

He will join Holidaybreak, which specialises in camping and adventure holidays, as a non-executive director next February and then take over as chairman from Angus Crichton-Miller in June.

Mr Ayling was at his holiday home in the Brecon Beacons in Wales yesterday and keeping a low profile. But a spokesman issued a statement on Mr Ayling's behalf in which he said he was very pleased to have been invited to become chairman of a "really good company with an excellent management".

The Holidaybreak job will take up about a day a week and pay Mr Ayling £50,000 a year. He is also a non-executive at the insurance group Royal & SunAlliance, a post he held before his departure from BA, and a director of the privately owned domestic appliances group Dyson, which he joined last year.

Mr Ayling was described yesterday as being "philosophical" about the mauling he received at BA and the criticism of his large pay-off. His reign is remembered for the introduction of ethnic tail fins, a bitter cabin crew strike and BA's failure to complete a transatlantic merger with American Airlines, although he also laid the foundations for the slimmed-down airline BA has become today under its new chief executive, Rod Eddington.

Two months after quitting the airline Mr Ayling was also forced to step down as chairman of the Millennium Dome and has been absent from public life since.

His spokesman said he wanted to step back into the spotlight in a low-key way rather than taking over at a company which was undergoing a major shake-up. Mr Ayling also looked forward to being involved with a publicly quoted company in a sector he understood well.

The Ayling's family home is still in Stockwell, south London and Mr Ayling lives a modest life. Since he left BA he has done a lot of sailing and a walking – his two passions in life outside the family.

His appointment came as Holidaybreak announced an 11 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £24m for the year to the end of September. Sales in its camping holidays division rose 5 per cent to £109m, and are expected to grow further this year following the £29m acquisition of the Eurosites business from the ailing tour operator MrTravel.

Its shares closed 5p higher at 577.5p yesterday.