Winners of IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards honoured

The three winners of the inaugural IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards, sponsored by Qatar Airways, were honoured at the conclusion of the World Air Transport Summit (WATS) in Seoul yesterday. The winners of the IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards in three categories are:  Inspirational Role Model - Christine Ourmières-Widener, CEO, Flybe; High Flyer Award – Fadimatou Noutchemo Simo, founder and president, Young African Aviation Professional Association (YAAPA); and Diversity & Inclusion Team – Air New Zealand.Each winner receives a prize of $25,000, payable to the winner in each of the categories or to their nominated charities.Nominations for the awards were adjudicated by a panel of four judges: Angela Gittens, director general, Airports Council International; Gloria Guevara, president and CEO, World Travel and Tourism Council; Mark Pilling, vice president (Publishing and Conferences), FlightGlobal; and Karen Walker, editor-in-chief, Air Transport World.“Selecting the winners was a difficult task. The large number of high-quality applications reflects the breadth of work being done across the industry on gender diversity and inclusion. There can only be one winner in each category, but all the applicants should inspire the industry to move forward. To meet the demands of the future, aviation needs a diverse and inclusive workforce,” said Gittens, on behalf of the judging panel.IATA’s director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said, “I congratulate all the nominees and winners of these awards; all of them should be proud of what they have achieved and how they are contributing to the Diversity & Inclusion agenda. Our industry is diverse and we need an equally diverse and inclusive workforce to meet their needs. But there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve the balance we need, particularly on gender diversity at senior levels. Today’s impressive awardees both demonstrate and inspire progress.” HE Akbar al-Baker, Qatar Airways Group chief executive and chair, IATA Board of Governors 2018-2019), said: “Qatar Airways is very pleased to sponsor the IATA Diversity and Inclusion Awards. We know that diversity and inclusion are strengths in helping us serve the needs of our customers and we sponsored these awards to help us and the industry as a whole identify those who are leading in this field so that we might learn from their success. Congratulations to all the winners and all those who were nominated, helping to drive important change in our industry.” The 75th IATA Annual General Meeting and WATS gathered more than 1,000 leaders of the global air transport industry in Seoul from June 1 to 3.