IATA DG Saadia Zahidi
The next and ninth IATA director general (DG) will be a woman and someone who has never worked at an airline.
This is a wow moment for an association that represents more than 370 airlines, and which has been led by former airline CEOs for most of its history, all of them male and of European descent.
Saadia Zahidi, who takes up the role on Nov. 1, IATA announced July 23, does not fit the mold. She is a Pakistani-Swiss citizen who is managing director at the World Economic Forum. She has served on the United Nations Secretary General panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment and the European Space Agency’s High-Level Advisory Group. She is the author of Fifty Million Rising, tracking the rise of working women in the Muslim world.
Zahidi will bring economic and global affairs expertise to her new role. The question is whether having an IATA leader with no airline operations experience is beneficial or risky when the airline industry faces so much turmoil and challenges to its operations? IATA is a dual-role organization. Its many systems and programs that serve airline business and safety needs, like the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and settlement systems, are handled by IATA staff and don’t require the DG’s direct assistance. Where the DG is vital is in bringing together hundreds of competing airlines to prioritize and support common issues. The DG must know what questions to ask transport ministers, regulators, suppliers and others, and how to field their answers and questions. That could be more challenging for a DG without airline operations’ experience.
Zahidi will succeed Willie Walsh, someone who is much more typical of the IATA board’s pick for the top job. Walsh is Irish, a pilot, and was CEO at two airlines (Aer Lingus and British Airways) then at International Airlines Group before becoming IATA DG. He is regarded as something of an industry maverick, but he is still very much of the industry and will remain so. This summer he takes on the role of CEO at Indian carrier IndiGo, an IATA member airline, marking the first time a DG has returned to being an airline CEO.
The IATA board, meanwhile, would not have been without potential candidates from within the industry, including several airline CEOs who have recently retired or left their positions.
Yet the board chose to go outside.
Walsh is the guest on an episode of Aviation Week’s Window Seat podcast that posts July 28, speaking just days before he departs. In that conversation, he said he believed Zahidi was going to enjoy the role and that there would be plenty of aviation guidance available to the new DG.
“I think the board was very conscious when making that decision that she will have the support of the expertise within IATA, and I think it’s a strong indication of the confidence that the board has in the management structure of IATA, and obviously the support that the board will give Saadia in her new role. So, I’m excited for her, and I wish her the very best, and I’ll certainly look forward to interacting with her and supporting her in every way,” Walsh said.
Asked if he had any word of advice for Zahidi, he laughed and said, “My advice to Saadia is don’t take advice from me.” Then he added, “She’ll be great in the role, and she’ll do it her way.”
IATA board chair and LATAM Airlines Group CEO Roberto Alvo also pointed to the thinking behind Zahidi’s selection in his welcoming announcement. “Saadia’s appointment comes at a moment of significant change in the international environment. Technology and geopolitics, among others, will reshape the industry in the future and Saadia brings the right skills to effectively articulate what our industry needs to continue connecting people and economies safely, efficiently and sustainably. She’ll bring a fresh perspective to IATA that will grow its support for the airline industry on the foundations of IATA’s well-established technical, financial and data capabilities,” he said.
“A fresh perspective”—those are key words. The air transport industry, and airlines in particular, have faced unprecedented turmoil over recent years and the crises seem to churn out faster than ever. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made airspace over those regions inaccessible to many airlines, forcing canceled routes or lengthy, fuel-guzzling diversions. COVID shut down global air travel and wrecked airline balance sheets. The ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran has led to more airspace closures, massive disruptions to the major Gulf hubs in the region, and unanticipated sky-high jet fuel prices. Yet people keep flying and the industry, by and large, is faring well. At the recent Farnborough Airshow, orders for hundreds of new airliners and engines were announced.
IATA chief economist & SVP sustainability Marie Owens Thomsen likes to say the airline industry is resilient but not robust. IATA still forecasts that the world’s airlines will remain profitable in 2026, but their collective profit will be halved from last year’s assumptions and margins will be single-digit miserable.
On top of that, airlines are battling against the supply chain’s massive production failures, the increasingly questionable—and self-set—timeline of 2050 to become carbon net zero (questionable mostly because of the dire lack of sustainable aviation fuel) and continued inefficient and mismanaged air traffic management systems.
These and more challenges will be Zahidi’s agenda from November. It could well be the right time for a fresh perspective from the top. But Zahidi may want to keep her seatbelt fastened at all times as she takes on her first aviation role; there could be turbulence ahead.
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