IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani tells Forbes India that passengers don't care which country's airline they are flying. All they want is good service. That's why governments need to give the industry the freedom to consolidate and survive
Giovanni Bisignani
Title: Director General and CEO, IATA
Age: 63
Qualification: MBA, Harvard Business School
Experience: Been at the helm at IATA since 2002. His career spans several industries. He began with Citibank and then held senior positions in Italian oil company ENI. He served as president of Tirrenia di Navigazione, Italy’s largest ferry company and went on to be the managing director and CEO of Alitalia for five years.
Interests: Golf, tennis and riding
The latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA, which represents over 90 percent of the scheduled airlines in the world) shows that air travel in Asia-Pacific has surpassed North America, the dominant market since the Wright brothers. What does this mean for Asian carriers?
With the new size comes responsibility. Much of the industry in Asia is still working on the post-Chicago convention era, rules that were set in the 1940s. This is a framework of the last century. I am hoping airlines from Singapore, China, Australia and India can take the lead and reshape these rules. Europe and the US are slowing down and going through their own political and cultural crisis.
(This story appears in the 19 March, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)