Qatar Airways boss savages IATA
Sunday, 08 Jun, 2011
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Qatar Airways’ chief exec has attacked airline industry body IATA, saying it is “run for the few, by the few”.
Akbar Al Baker blasted the organisation during a session at the IATA AGM in Singapore, saying it failed to be adequately transparent in its processes.
He called into question the auditing process for IATA’s 2010 financial statement and highlighted some of IATA’s expenditure including US$18 million on travel, US$58 million on data processing and IT and US $29 million on outsourcing and consultancy.
He asked how the organisation could justify such large sums of money on travel and how they went about awarding contracts to data processing and IT companies.
Al Baker went on to question the surprise board nomination of Etihad chief executive James Hogan to broaden the representation of carriers from the Middle East.
“We believe such issues should not be surprises," he said.
Firstly, such decisions should be transparent and secondly, if geographical representation is the basis of the composition of the board, the regional airlines involved should be informed in advance of their regional allotments so that they can coordinate who should represent them.”
Al Baker backed a motion for the body to reconsider the appointment of its auditors and asked for better dialogue between IATA and airlines to ensure better transparency.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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