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    Qatar Airways Chief Akbar Al Baker – new IATA Board Chairman

    June 11, 2018
    Personality / Awards
    ,
    Qatar Airways Chief Akbar Al Baker – new IATA Board Chairman

    TravelBizNews —

    Sydney – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, has assumed his duties as Chairman of the IATA Board of Governors (BoG) for a one-year term effective from the conclusion of the 74th IATA Annual General Meeting in Sydney, Australia recently.

    Al Baker is the 77th chair of the IATA BoG and the first CEO from Qatar Airways to hold the position. He has served on the BoG since 2012. He succeeds Goh Choon Phong, CEO of Singapore Airlines.

    Al-Baker was named Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive in 1997. In this position, Al Baker has spearheaded the growth of Qatar Airways from a small regional carrier into a major global. He was president of the 70th AGM which was held in Doha in 2014.

    IATA also announced that Carsten Spohr, Chairman and CEO of Lufthansa, will serve as Chairman of the BoG from June 2019, following Al Baker’s term, according to IATA statement.

    The full list of the 2018-2019 IATA Board of Governors is as follows:   

    Calin Rovinescu, President and CEO – AIR CANADA

    María José Hidalgo Gutiérrez, CEO – AIR EUROPA

    Franck Terner, CEO – AIR FRANCE

    Douglas Parker, Chief Executive Officer – AMERICAN AIRLINES

    Harry Hohmeister, Chairman – AUSTRIAN AIRLINES

    German Efromovich, Chairman – AVIANCA

    Rupert Hogg, Chairman and CEO – CATHAY PACIFIC

    Liu Shaoyong, Chairman – CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES

    Tan Wangeng, President and CEO – CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES

    Pedro Heilbron, CEO – COPA AIRLINES

    Safwat Musallam, Chairman and CEO – EGYPTAIR

    Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO – ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

    David Bronczek, President and CEO – FEDEX CORPORATION

    Christine Ourmières-Widener, CEO – FLYBE

    Luis Gallego Martin, CEO – IBERIA

    Yuji Akasaka, President – JAPAN AIRLINES

    Naresh Goyal, Chairman – JET AIRWAYS (INDIA) LTD.

    Robin Hayes, CEO – JETBLUE AIRWAYS

    Sebastian Mikosz, Managing Director and CEO – KENYA AIRWAYS

    Pieter Elbers, President and CEO – KLM

    Yang Ho Cho, Chairman and CEO – KOREAN AIR

    Enrique Cueto, CEO – LATAM

    Carsten Spohr, Chairman and CEO – LUFTHANSA

    Mohamad El-Hout, Chairman/Director General – MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES

    Alan Joyce, CEO – QANTAS

    Akbar Al Baker, CEO  – QATAR AIRWAYS

    Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO – SAS

    Saleh Nasser Al Jasser, Director General – SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

    Goh Choon Phong, CEO – SINGAPORE AIRLINES

    Oscar Munoz, CEO – UNITED AIRLINES

    Pham Ngoc Minh, Chairman – VIETNAM AIRLINES

    International Air Transport Association( IATA) represents some 290 airlines comprising 82 per cent of global air traffic.

    June 2018

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