The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Lufthansa Group Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Spohr, has assumed his duties as Chairman of the IATA Board of Governors (BoG) for a one-year term effective from the conclusion of the 75th IATA Annual General Meeting in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Spohr is the 78th chair of the IATA BoG. He has served on the BoG since May 2014.
Spohr succeeds Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, who will continue to serve on the BoG.
“I’m honored and excited to take on this role at this important time for our industry. We face a number of challenges, including growing protectionism, high taxes and trade wars. Probably the greatest challenge of all is sustainability. The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) is a major achievement that will stabilize our carbon emissions from 2020. Now we must map out the path to achieving our much more ambitious 2050 goal — to cut net emissions to half 2005 levels. Aviation is serious about its climate change commitments. And we will be pushing hard for governments to do their part by sorting air traffic management inefficiencies and laying the policy framework for the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels,” said Spohr.
Spohr has been Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG since 1 May 2014. In this role, he manages the Lufthansa Group comprising the business segments Network Airlines, Eurowings and Aviation Services, with around 135,000 employees worldwide. Spohr began his aviation career after receiving a graduate degree in business engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and holds an A320 family captain’s license.
“I look forward to working with Carsten as Chair of the IATA Board of Governors. As we continually seek to broaden the IATA membership, his experience within the Lufthansa Group will be particularly valuable.
I also want to thank Akbar Al Baker for his strong leadership and support as Chairman over the last year. Under his leadership, IATA has made progress on a number of IATA initiatives including New Distribution Capability, One ID and digital transformation. Akbar also encouraged our gender diversity initiatives, leading to the creation of the association’s Diversity and Inclusion Awards to recognize those companies and individuals who are leading in this effort,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
IATA also announced that JetBlue Airways President and CEO Robin Hayes will serve as Chairman of the BoG from June 2020, following Spohr’s term.
The full list of the 2019-2020 IATA Board of Governors is as follows:
Vitaly Saveliev | Director General and CEO AEROFLOT |
Calin Rovinescu | President and CEO AIR CANADA |
María José Hidalgo Gutiérrez | CEO AIR EUROPA |
Benjamin Smith | CEO AIR FRANCE/KLM (REPRESENTING AIR FRANCE) |
Yuji Hirako | President and CEO ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS |
Douglas Parker | Chief Executive Officer AMERICAN AIRLINES |
Rupert Hogg | Chairman and CEO CATHAY PACIFIC |
Liu Shaoyong | Chairman CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES |
Wang Changshun | Chairman CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES |
Pedro Heilbron | CEO COPA AIRLINES |
Ahmed Adel | Chairman and CEO EGYPTAIR |
Tewolde GebreMariam | CEO ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES |
Donald F. Colleran | President and Chief Executive Officer FEDEX EXPRESS |
Christine Ourmières-Widener | CEO FLYBE |
Luis Gallego Martin | CEO IBERIA |
Yuji Akasaka | President JAPAN AIRLINES |
Robin Hayes | President and CEO JETBLUE AIRWAYS |
Sebastian Mikosz | Managing Director and CEO KENYA AIRWAYS |
Walter 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 |
Mehmet Tevfik Nane | CEO PEGASUS 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 |
Ajay Singh | Chairman and Managing Director SPICEJET |
Oscar Munoz | CEO UNITED AIRLINES |