Keith Richards, former head of consumer affairs for ABTA, has become the first chair of the CAA Consumer Panel.
The new panel has been set up to give the CAA a sharper focus on how its regulatory activity affects passengers.
It is scheduled to be up and running this summer.
Richards, a barrister, was also a campaigns lawyer for Which?.
After leaving ABTA in 2010 he has acted as a mediator and member of ABTA’s Travel Disputes Arbitration Panel.
He has also served for many years as an independent member of global regulatory bodies in other sectors, including architecture and surveying.
Richards said: "Air travellers in the UK benefit from a diverse and competitive aviation industry that clearly offers a good range of choice across different price levels, but anyone who reads the papers every day knows there is room to improve life for the flying public.
"In this role, I will be able to draw on my experience in the travel industry, as a consumer advocate, and of global regulation in other sectors, to closely scrutinise the CAA in its work as well as to support and encourage it, with the aim of ensuring that it places the interests of the travelling public right at the heart of everything it does."
