At the meeting of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) Board of Directors held on March 6, 2026, Telmen Tunsag, the acting director of MIAT, was appointed as a member of the association's Board of Directors," reports MiddleAsianNews.
Currently, IATA includes airlines such as Air Canada, Air China, Air France-KLM Group, Air India, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Australian Airlines (Lufthansa Group), Cathay Group, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Airline and International 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 is Luis Gallego Martin, who also serves as the CEO of IAG, while the Director General of IATA is Willie Walsh.
Members of the IATA Board of Directors actively participate in decision-making on critical issues, including flight safety, environmental policy, and international cooperation. This event represents not only prestige but also a real opportunity to influence the future of global aviation.
IATA, or the International Air Transport Association, is a non-governmental organization headquartered in Montreal, Canada, with its European center in Geneva, Switzerland. The association has 57 offices and 120 representations worldwide.
Founded on April 19, 1945, in Havana, Cuba, IATA aims for effective cooperation among airlines.
At the time of its founding, IATA united 57 members from 31 countries, primarily from Europe and North America. Currently, IATA has 350 members from 120 countries (as of May 25, 2025), responsible for 80% of international flights, according to the association's own data.
The association is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association, established in The Hague on August 28, 1919, with the goal of ensuring safe, regular, and economical air transport. This association, created in the post-war period, ceased to exist due to World War II.
Previously, before Ronald Reagan's reforms, IATA regulated all aspects of civil aviation, including in-flight menus and seat distances.
In February 2021, IATA signed a partnership agreement with OAG, a global leader in providing travel data and analytics, allowing the association access to flight schedules and other reference data.
The association plays a vital role in coordinating the interests of the aviation industry in areas such as flight safety, production processes, tariff policy, maintenance, and the development of international standards in collaboration with ICAO.
A key focus of IATA's work is organizing settlements among air transport participants, conducted on the basis of a neutral airline ticket form. The IATA Clearing House began operations in 1948, facilitating settlements between airlines. In 1972, the IATA BSP system was implemented, covering the entire world except for the USA and some CIS countries.
Since 2007, IATA has fully transitioned to selling air transport using electronic tickets.
IATA also assigns codes for airports, airlines, and aircraft types, ensuring their classification.
Flight safety is the top priority for IATA. The main tool for ensuring this is the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit), which has been adopted by many countries as a mandatory standard. The year 2012 was the safest in aviation history: according to incident data involving Western aircraft, there were only 0.20 incidents per million flights, equivalent to one incident for every five million flights.
