“At the meeting of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) Board of Directors held on March 6, 2026, Telmen Tunsag, Executive Director of MIAT, was appointed as a member of the association's Board of Directors,” reports MiddleAsianNews.
As of today, the IATA Board of Directors includes representatives from airlines such as Air Canada, Air China, Air France-KLM Group, Air India, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Australian Airlines (part of the Lufthansa Group), Cathay Group, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, FedEx, Hainan Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Latam Airlines Group, Miat Mongolian Airlines, Middle East Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Rwandair, SAS, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, and VOLARIS. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Luis Gallego Martin, who also serves as the Executive Director of IAG. Willie Walsh is the Director General of IATA.
Members of the IATA Board of Directors actively participate in discussions and decision-making on a wide range of issues, including flight safety, environmental policy, and international cooperation. This event represents not only prestige but also an opportunity to influence the future of global aviation.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is a non-governmental organization with international status. Its headquarters is located in Montreal, Canada, and its European center is in Geneva, Switzerland. Currently, IATA has 57 offices and 120 representations worldwide.
IATA was founded on April 19, 1945, in Havana, Cuba, to promote cooperation among airlines.
At the time of its establishment, the association included 57 members from 31 countries, mainly from Europe and North America. Today, IATA unites 350 members from 120 countries (as of May 25, 2025), which account for 80% of all international air transport, according to the association's own data.
IATA is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association, founded in The Hague on August 28, 1919, with the aim of organizing safe, regular, and economically justified air transport of passengers and cargo, as well as facilitating interaction among all participants in international air transport. This association, created after World War I, ceased to exist due to World War II.
Before the start of Ronald Reagan's reforms aimed at reducing the regulation of commercial air transport, IATA defined all aspects of civil aviation, including onboard menus and seat spacing.
In February 2021, IATA and OAG, a leading global provider of travel analytics, signed a cooperation agreement. OAG provides IATA with flight schedule data and other necessary information.
The association represents the interests of the aviation industry in areas such as flight safety, flight management, fare policy, maintenance, and the development of international standards in conjunction with ICAO.
One of IATA's key activities is organizing settlements among aviation market participants based on a neutral ticket sales system. The IATA Clearing House was established in 1948 to conduct settlements between airlines. In 1972, the global neutral airline ticket sales system BSP IATA was created, covering almost all regions of the world except the USA and CIS countries (except for Moldova).
Since 2007, IATA has fully transitioned to the sale of air transport using electronic tickets.
IATA assigns unique codes for airports, airlines, and aircraft types.
Ensuring flight safety is a priority for IATA. The main tool for this is the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit), which has been implemented in many countries as a mandatory requirement. The year 2012 was the safest in aviation history: the global accident rate for Western-built aircraft was 0.20, equivalent to one incident per 5 million flights.
