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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Saadia Zahidi has been appointed by IATA’s board of directors to the position of director general from 1 November.
Zahidi will be IATA’s ninth director general and the first woman appointed to hold the position. She joins IATA from the World Economic Forum (WEF) where she is a managing director and member of the managing board.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s current director general, will conclude his duties next Friday. The IATA board has appointed Sandrine Le Borgne, IATA’s chief financial officer and senior vice president for corporate services, as interim director general for the intervening period.
The group is appointing the Pakistani-born economist, an outsider to the aviation sector, at a time when airlines are wrestling with geopolitical and economic headwinds as oil prices rise above $100 a barrel due to Middle East strife.
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