Gallery: ATW 2021 Industry Achievement Award Winners

ATW Industry Achievement Award winners (from left): ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker; JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes; Qatar Airways Cargo SVP-cargo Guillaume Halleux; Korean Air CEO and chairman Walter Cho; United Airlines SVP-worldwide sales Doreen Burse; IATA VP-Americas Peter Cerda accepted the Excellent in Leadership award on behalf of Alexandre de Juniac; Viva Aerobus CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua; 2020 Airline of the Year winner Wizz Air CEO József Váradi; Incheon International Airport EVP Pill-Yeon Kim; United Airlines VP-sustainability Lauren Riley; and ATW publisher Beth Wagner.

ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker presents Korean Air CEO and chairman Walter Cho with the Airline of the Year award.

After accepting the award, Korean Air CEO and chairman Walter Cho said, “Our airline is where it is today thanks to our people. 2020 and 2021 have been exceptionally difficult for everyone in this room. The pandemic has closed borders, grounded aircraft and impacted travel like never before. But despite these challenges we posted an operating profit for five consecutive quarters, thanks to the effort and commitment of our people. Our team helped me and our airline quickly adapt to the difficulties facing our industry. I can’t emphasize enough our people are the reason I am standing here tonight. This award is truly a recognition of their effort and I am humbled by their dedication and loyalty.” Cho also recognized crew members who joined him on a repatriation flight to Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic. “These individuals bravely stepped up and volunteered to take part in the operations. They are true examples of Korean Air spirit.”

Korean Air executives, staff and cabin crew share in the excitement of the night by posing for a photo with ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker. Korean Air CEO and chairman Walter Cho recognized crew members who joined him on a repatriation flight to Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic. “These individuals bravely stepped up and volunteered to take part in the operations. They are true examples of Korean Air spirit.”

ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker also recognized last year’s 2020 Airline of the Year winner since we were unable to hold an in-person event. Pictured, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi is presented with the 2020 Airline of the Year award.

After accepting the award, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi compared the ATW award to the “Oscar award for aviation” and said he received the award “on behalf of the 5,000 people of Wizz Air. We have a fantastic team; the average age of the company is below 30 years, so you can imagine the drive, the energy coming out of that team. We have a can-do attitude.”

IATA VP-Americas Peter Cerda accepted the Excellence in Leadership award on behalf of former IATA director general & CEO Alexandre de Juniac from ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker. Cerda passed on remarks from Alexandre de Juniac, who said he was “honored to receive this prestigious award in a time where aviation is started to emerge from the bigger crises ever. This award recognizes leadership, but every leader knows any success belong to the team. The next stage of my work has taking me into the world of finance. I’m still cheering them on in the important mission to serve IATA members and ensure that flying will be always the business of freedom.”

ATW Senior Associate Editor Linda Blachly presents JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes with the Airline Market Leader award.

JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, who is also IATA’s Chair of the IATA Board of Governors, remarked that this is an “amazing time in our industry.” Coming off of a three-day IATA AGM, he said, “It is so great to see everyone in person. Let’s be honest, to spend three days at the AGM and you feel happy about it, I think that speaks business travel will be back.”

Aviation Week Editor-in-Chief Joe Anselmo presents the 2021 Eco-Airline of the Year award to United Airlines VP-sustainability Lauren Riley and United SVP-worldwide sales Doreen Burse, who said, “We’re really proud of our leadership on climate issues but we also recognize the huge amount of work to do to make this a decade of action to make our industry more sustainable. For United, leading on climate issues is at the core of our value set. And it is also increasingly embedded in our DNA, in core, how we run our business from investments in more fuel-efficient aircraft as you saw, and the next generation fueled up onboard recycling programs and innovative partnerships like our Eco-Skies Alliance. United is focused long term on the larger industry going above and beyond with carbon offsets to achieve our goals. We have made a lot of progress, but we believe we can and need to do more. And on behalf of the United team, we look forward to working with each of you as we move on step closer to sustainable flying.

Senior Analyst Lori Ranson presents the 2021 Value Airline of the Year to an enthusiastic Viva Aerobus CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua.

Accepting the award, Viva Aerobus CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua said, “We are very humbled and pleased after 15 months, after the world shut down, pretty much everyone in this room was panicked. Sales fell down the cliff for pretty much everybody in aviation. We are honored to be here, because I believe the recovery of this industry has been a two-sided story, because you have many countries in the world in which airlines pretty much had very supportive governments in which everyone was told not to worry, you would get a paycheck every month. And then you have a lot of other countries that were pretty much on their own. So it was tough, to be honest, after so much uncertainty in not knowing when passengers were coming back. In Mexico, we were very fortunate in which our government never shut down our industry. Mexico stayed open from day one and we were able to recover much faster as an industry than any other region in the world. We knew this problem was not caused by the airlines, but by other external factors, and we are going to recover together. And most importantly we work together to gain trust back from our passengers very fast.”

ATW correspondent Kurt Hofmann presents the 2021 Cargo Operator of the Year award to Qatar Airways SVP cargo Guillaume Halleux.

Accepting the award, Qatar Airways SVP-cargo Guillaume Hulleux said, “COVID has accelerated a lot of things in our industry. It also disrupted one thing: now my wife knows what I do for a living, and so do you. So, it is a great honor and great pleasure to receive this trophy. I am extremely grateful on behalf of the 3,000 people of Qatar Airways Cargo worldwide. But most importantly I would like tonight to recognize all of you in this room and your cargo teams, because we as an industry have become the lifeline of the world.”

North American air transport editor Ben Goldstein presents the Airport of the Year award to Incheon International Airport EVP Pill-Yeon Kim

Incheon International Airport EVP Pill-Yeon Kim said it was a “great honor to receive this award” and thanked everyone working at Incheon International Airport. “I hope we can all overcome the pandemic as soon as possible.”