Tony Tyler new IATA board chairman

Tyler succeeds Samer Majali, CEO of Royal Jordanian Airlines, who served since last June.

"The global economic meltdown is hitting the aviation industry hard.

A toxic combination of low fares, a large drop in premium travel and weak cargo loads is hitting the bottom line hard. The IATA has some critical roles to play. It must protect the US$350 billion [Bt11.92 trillion] in industry cash flowing through its financial systems. It must also find even more efficiency gains - not just by airlines, but throughout the industry value chain," Tyler said.

Tyler said 2009 would be a critical year in terms of environmental issues.

"As we move towards the climate-change-treaty negotiations in Copenhagen in December, our industry's united four-pillar strategy on climate change makes us part of the solution. The industry is committed to achieving carbon-neutral growth by 2020, but to achieve this we need to focus on bringing governments on board. That means turning their support for improved technology, effective operations and efficient infrastructure into action, as well as reaching agreement on a global sectoral approach to economic measures in a post-Kyoto climate framework," Tyler said.

Director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said: "I look forward to working closely with Tony in the coming year to meet our growing challenges with continued strong industry leadership."

The IATA also announced its board agreed to appoint FedEx Express president and CEO David Bronczek to serve as chairman following Tyler. Bronczek will bring a unique perspective from the air cargo industry when his term commences next June.

The IATA represents 230 airlines comprising 93 per cent of scheduled international air traffic.