New Travel Agency Commissioners Announced

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) and the United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA) announced the appointment of Travel Agency Commissioners.

The Travel Agency Commissioner Program was established 30 years ago and resides within the Travel Agency Program overseen by the Passenger Agency Conference (PAConf). It enables IATA Accredited Agents to raise cases of actions taken by IATA or IATA Member Airlines which may impact the Agents’ business or where the Agent believes the action was not aligned with PAConf Resolutions.

The newly appointed Travel Agency Commissioners are:

• Andrea Simoes and Lina Pettersson for Area 2, encompassing Europe, Middle East and Africa. Both Simoes and Pettersson have extensive experience with the IATA Agency Programme and the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan, both having been employed by IATA until earlier this year.
• Abhilash Raju for Area 3, encompassing Asia, Australia and South West Pacific. Raju operates a legal practice in Bangalore, India, primarily focused on arbitration and commercial dispute resolution.

In addition,

• Verónica Pacheco-Sanfuentes, the current Travel Agency Commissioner for Area 1, encompassing the Western Hemisphere (excluding the USA), has been reappointed. Pacheco-Sanfuentes has served as Travel Agency Commissioner for Area 1 for the past 11 years.

“On behalf of the industry, IATA, WTAAA and UFTAA take this opportunity to welcome the new Commissioners and to thank Andreas Körösi and Jo Foged for the valuable work that they have performed in support of air travel stakeholders,” said Aleks Popovich, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Customer, Financial and Digital Services.

Notes for Editors:

• IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 290 airlines comprising 82% of global air traffic.
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