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.
The good news is that IATA is forecasting another profitable year for airlines; a global net profit of $19.7 billion in 2014 that will mark an almost $7 billion improvement over the profit anticipated for 2013.
Lufthansa Group’s intent to end the codeshare and frequent flyer arrangements that Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss have with Turkish Airlines has interesting implications for the future of the global alliances, particularly with regards to the major Gulf carriers. Lufthansa, a Star Alliance founding member, sponsored Turkish Airlines’ induction into Star in 2008. Since then, Turkish has expanded rapidly and as a result, Istanbul has become a major global hub rivaling the traditional European hubs such as Frankfurt.
Asia-Pacific airlines—global industry leaders in terms of profitability in recent years—are cautious about 2014 as yields and profits this year have failed to reach anticipated levels, the head of the region’s airline association says.
