Alan Joyce

QANTAS Airways CEO & managing director, Alan Joyce, has taken over as chairman of the IATA board of governors.

His one-year term will end with the conclusion of IATA’s 69^th AGM and World Air Transport Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Cape Town, South Africa next June (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 12, 2012).

Joyce succeeds KLM president & CEO, Peter Hartman, whose own one-year term expired at the recent conclusion of IATA’s 68^th AGM in Beijing.

A 24-year veteran of the aviation industry, Joyce has led Qantas since November 2008. He was CEO of Jetstar from 2003 to 2008. Prior to that, he spent over 15 years in leadership positions at Qantas, Ansett, and Aer Lingus.

“The top priorities (for IATA), as always, will be safety, security, and sustainability," said Joyce. "On top of that, I want to see IATA continue to deliver value to its members by being a strong advocate for the industry."

He added: “Aviation delivers enormous economic benefits—supporting some 57 million jobs and US$2.2 trillion in economic activity. We need to ensure that governments understand what is at stake when they make key decisions on taxes, regulation, and capacity expansion."

Meanwhile, IATA has appointed Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, to succeed Joyce as chairman, following the completion of the latter's one-year term in June 2013.