IATA’s annual general meeting has been postponed to 3-5 October 2021, as the airline industry association seeks to ensure an in-person event happens this year amid a hoped-for recovery from the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Originally due to be held on 27-29 June, the 77th AGM and World Air Transport summit will still take place in Boston, with JetBlue Airways as the host.
“We believe that it is vital to do all we can to meet as an industry face to face,” says outgoing IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. ”Doing so will affirm that airlines can safely connect the world, demonstrate our industry’s resilience, and confirm the inestimable value of in-person meetings, facilitated by aviation.”
The event will mark Willie Walsh’s first as the new IATA director general, with the former IAG chief set to take the helm of the association from 1 April.
IATA’s 76th AGM eventually took place in November 2020 as a virtual event, hosted by KLM. It was supposed to happen in June of that year in Amsterdam, but was postponed amid the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
IATA’s last in-person AGM was held in Seoul on 1-3 June 2019.
The IATA AGM is one of the biggest events in the industry calendar, with some 800 representatives from the association’s member airlines, industry partners, international and regional associations, and manufacturers and suppliers attending the annual gathering.
