Airline association Iata has announced an internal restructure, reducing its regional operations from seven to five.
Iata has expanded its head-office divisions from four to five. The association said the restructuring would avoid redundancies or downsizing.
Iata’s regional operations for Europe, Asia-Pacific and North Asia remain unchanged, with regional head offices retained in Madrid, Singapore and Beijing.
However, the North America and South America operations will be combined into one region served from Iata’s Miami office.
Similarly, the Africa and Middle East North Africa (MENA) operations will be combined as Africa and the Middle East, served from Iata’s office in Amman.
The association’s five head-office divisions will cover: Airports, Passengers and Cargo Services (APCS), Member and External Relations (MER), Safety and Flight Operations (SFO), Financial and Distribution Services (FDS) and Marketing and Commercial Services (MACS).
The Financial and Distribution Services division will oversee development of the New Distribution Capability which Iata hopes will transform the current distribution model.
The project will continue to be overseen by Aleksander Popovich, currently Iata’s senior vice-president of industry distribution and financial services, who will head the FDS division.
The changes follow a review set up by director general Tony Tyler after he took over in July 2011.