The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has tapped World Economic Forum managing director Saadia Zahidi as its new director general after current boss Willie Walsh joins Indian airline IndiGo, the airline lobby group said on Thursday.
Zahidi, the first woman to assume the role as IATA's director general, will start November 1, the group said in a news release which confirmed an earlier report by Reuters.
The group is tapping the Pakistani-born economist, an outsider to the aviation sector, at a time when airlines are wrestling with geopolitical and economic headwinds as oil prices rise above $100 a barrel due to Middle East strife
