New senior VP for Safety and Flight Operations Kevin Hiatt joins from Flight Safety Foundation

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announces the appointment of Kevin Hiatt as Senior Vice President, Safety and Flight Operations. Hiatt will join IATA on 17 February 2014 and be based at the Association’s headquarters in Montreal. He will succeed Guenther Matschnigg, who is retiring from IATA.

Hiatt joins IATA from the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) where he has been President and CEO since 1 January 2013, having joined FSF in 2010 as Executive Vice President. He was subsequently promoted to the position of COO. Hiatt previously served as Vice President for Corporate Safety and Security for World Airways, and was with Delta Air Lines for 26 years in various positions, including Chief Pilot at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Pilot Crew Base from 2002 to late 2005.

“Kevin will lead IATA’s work on our top priority—safety. He brings to this position a proven track record of both leadership and innovation at FSF and within the airline industry. IATA has an ambitious agenda for safety with our Six Point Safety Program. This includes supporting the Abuja Declaration aimed at bringing African safety performance to world class levels by 2015 and implementing the Enhanced IATA Operational Safety Audit (Enhanced-IOSA). Kevin will be a strong addition to our organization and will enable us to work even more closely with safety partners such as FSF,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

“IATA plays a unique leadership role in the aviation industry and I’m excited to be joining its senior leadership team. Air transport is safe because we are constantly learning and seeking ways to improve. I look forward to further strengthening the partnerships in place across the industry as we make a safe industry even safer,” said Hiatt.

Matschnigg has led IATA’s efforts on safety and flight operations since 1999. “Guenther’s achievements are far too many to list. Among the highlights is that he conceived and led the development of the IOSA program. As the program celebrates its 10th anniversary the performance of airlines on the IOSA registry clearly shows that it has improved safety. In the spirit of constant improvement he has also overseen the launch of Enhanced-IOSA—which strengthens the program through constant quality management.

We all owe Guenther an enormous debt of gratitude for his strong leadership in the areas of safety, operations, security and infrastructure during his 14 years with IATA,” said Tyler.