Carsten Spohr is the new IATA Board chairman

June 3, 2019: Lufthansa Group chief executive officer Carsten Spohr has been appointed 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 Akbar Al Baker, who will continue to serve on the BoG.

“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 May 1, 2014. In this role, he manages the Lufthansa Group comprising the business segments Network Airlines, Eurowings and Aviation Services.

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 Savelie, Director General and CEO, AEROFLOT

Calin Rovinescu, President and CEO, AIR CANADA

Maria Jose 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 Ourmieres-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

The Geneva-headquartered body also informed that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, a founding member of IATA, will host the 76th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on June 22-23, 2020.

This will be the third time that the Netherlands will host the global gathering of aviation's top leaders.

“This year in October 2019 KLM celebrates our 100th anniversary. A very special moment for all KLM colleagues. We are ready and fit for the next century and—as one of the founders of IATA—very proud to welcome everyone in Amsterdam next year,” said Pieter Elbers, president and CEO of KLM.