SYDNEY, 6 June 2018: Qatar Airways Group’s chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, took over the duties of chairman of the IATA Board of Governors on Tuesday at the close of the 74th IATA Annual General Meeting in Sydney, Australia.
Al Baker is the 77th chair of the International Air Transport Association BoG and the first CEO from Qatar Airways to hold the position. He succeeds Goh Choon Phong, CEO of Singapore Airlines for the single year term.
Al-Baker was named Qatar Airways’ Group chief executive in 1997 and is credited with spearheaded the growth of Qatar Airways from a small regional carrier into a major global airline.
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.
The 2018-2019 IATA Board of Governors:
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
