Former IAG boss Willie Walsh to become IATA chief exec
Willie Walsh, the outspoken former boss of British Airways-owner IAG, is set to become the head of global aviation body IATA.
The Irishman stepped down from his role as chief executive of the European carrier group in September.
He had been meant to leave in the spring, but agreed to carry out to shepherd IAG through the coronavirus pandemic.
Now IATA have announced that he will replace current boss Alexandre de Juniac in March.
De Juniac – a former chief exec of Air France-KLM – took up the post in 2016.
He said: “Over the last years IATA has strategically increased its relevance as the voice of the global airline industry. This has been evident in the Covid-19 crisis.
“IATA has set the course to restore air connectivity amid the pandemic with systematic pre-departure testing. We are well into preparations to fulfil critical vaccine distribution needs.
“In parallel, we have restructured IATA to survive the crisis and be ready to support the industry recovery with an organization dimensioned to serve a smaller industry.”
Walsh is one of the industry’s best-known figures, renowned for his no-nonsense – and sometime abrasive – style.
He was instrumental in the creation of IAG, overseeing the merger of Spanish carrier Iberia and BA, which he was running at the time.
During the pandemic, he was particularly critical of governments stepping in to protect their national carriers, arguing instead airlines which could not survive the downturn on their own should be allowed to fail.