Air China and Beijing will host next year’s IATA annual conference and World Civil Aviation Summit.
Air China is the world’s most profitable carrier with the largest market capitalisation.
IATA, the airline industry body, said its decision to invite Air China to host next year’s annual conference reflects the ever-increasing global importance of the Chinese airline industry.
The 2011 IATA summit wrapped up in Singapore this week with a sting in the tail when Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, accused IATA, of being “run for the few, by the fewâ€.
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.
