Carsten Spohr Becomes IATA Board Chairman

Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa Group's CEO, has become Chairman of IATA's Board of Governors for a one-year term.

Spohr is the 78th chair and has served on the board since May 2014. He succeeds Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, who will continue to serve on the board.

“I’m honored and excited to take on this role at this important time for our industry,” said Spohr. “We face a number of challenges, including growing protectionism, high taxes and trade wars. Probably the greatest challenge of all is sustainability. The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) is a major achievement that will stabilize our carbon emissions from 2020. Now we must map out the path to achieving our much more ambitious 2050 goal — to cut net emissions to half 2005 levels. Aviation is serious about its climate change commitments. And we will be pushing hard for governments to do their part by sorting air traffic management inefficiencies and laying the policy framework for the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels.”

Spohr has been Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG since 1 May 2014. In this role, he manages the Lufthansa Group comprising the business segments Network Airlines, Eurowings and Aviation Services, with around 135,000 employees worldwide.

Spohr began his aviation career after receiving a graduate degree in business engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and holds an A320 family captain’s license.

Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said, “I want to thank Akbar Al Baker for his strong leadership and support as Chairman over the last year. Under his leadership, IATA has made progress on a number of IATA initiatives including New Distribution Capability, One ID and digital transformation. Akbar also encouraged our gender diversity initiatives, leading to the creation of the association’s Diversity and Inclusion Awards to recognize those companies and individuals who are leading in this effort.”

Robin Hayes, JetBlue President and CEO, will serve as Chairman from June 2020, following Spohr’s term.

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