Karen Walker is Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief and Aviation Week Network Group Air Transport Editor-in-Chief. She joined ATW in 2011 and oversees the editorial content and direction of ATW, Routes and Aviation Week Group air transport content.
Karen serves on the board of directors of the International Aviation Club of Washington and was the IAC’s President in 2017-2018.
Karen has been writing about the aerospace and air transport industries for more than 35 years and is a recognized authority and commenter on the airline industry. She is a regular speaker and moderator at aviation events worldwide and a commentator on radio and TV news programs. In 2019, she was a judge and a presenter for IATA’s inaugural diversity awards.
Based in Washington D.C., she gained her degree in journalism in the U.K. and is a multiple winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerospace journalism awards.
She is the recipient of the Aerospace Media Awards 2021 Aerospace Writer of the Year.
When the European Commission (EC) agreed last year temporarily to suspend its emission trading scheme (ETS) carbon tax for flights to and from the European Union, the move was universally welcomed.
When it comes to safety and aircraft, a good news story is bound to be very good indeed. And so for IATA, 2012 provided not just an exceptionally good story, but was a banner year. Member airlines had their safest year ever, with no hull-loss accidents on Western-built jets.
What started as one of Boeing’s most difficult weeks—beginning with a fire and ending with a full-scale safety review of the 787’s design and production—rapidly turned into a public relations nightmare the following week when two airlines grounded their 787 fleets and images of a Dreamliner with emergency chutes deployed streamed over television and computer screens worldwide.
