IATA Makes Surprise Pick for New Leader, Skips Airline Veterans

The International Air Transport Association has named Saadia Zahidi as its next director general, appointing the World Economic Forum executive to succeed Willie Walsh and making her the first woman to lead the airline trade body.

Zahidi, a managing director and member of the board at the WEF, will start on November 1. Walsh will start as CEO at IndiGo on August 3.

Whoever followed Walsh was always going to inherit a tricky comparison. Over five years, the former IAG chief proved an unusually effective operator for an organization more often associated with technical standard-setting than public presence.

Zahidi arrives from a different world. She spent more than two decades at the WEF, where she founded and heads its Ce