Airline group IATA taps World Economic Forum's Zahidi as new chief

NEW DELHI, July 23 (Reuters) - 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 carrier IndiGo, the airline lobby group said on Thursday.

Zahidi, the first woman to serve 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 turning to 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.

The influential Geneva-based organisation has largely been run by former airline CEOs or board members.

As director general of IATA, Zahidi will also face discussion over curbing pollution from flights at a time when airlines' flagship goal of net zero by 2050 has been put at risk by a shortage of efficient new aircraft and green jet fuel.

In January, when discussing the top global risks for 2026, Zahidi expressed concern in a World Economic Forum podcast that environmental risks were being deprioritized as executives focus on areas like trade tensions.

"I think the fact that these have been deprioritized is concerning, but it's also to some extent understandable because there has been this focus on shorter term risks around geopolitics, around geoeconomics, around potential asset bubbles," she said.

"All of that is starting to detract the attention of many leaders and experts. But that is not to say that this isn't something that we also need to be looking into."

(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram, Allison Lampert and Tim Hepher; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama )