Glyn exits IATA Cargo – the industry is shocked

Stéphan Graber, FIATA Director General
At a time when the air freight industry in particular is faced with immense challenges, experience is the one thing that is key as to its recovery and in that Glyn Hughes knows the global air freight industry better than most. A thorough professional with airline interests foremost, Glyn is, and will continue to remain, a FIATA friend. FIATA wishes him well in his future endeavors.
FIATA looks forward to continuing building synergies with IATA. Now more than ever, it is important for both organizations to strengthen collaboration to defend the air cargo industry in the times of a major health crisis and help ensure that the supply chain continues to function.

Peter Gerber, CEO Lufthansa Cargo
It is a great pity that Glyn is going to leave. I would like to thank him for his excellent work with IATA and his outstanding commitment to the needs of our industry over the past years. Especially the current situation clearly reflects how important air cargo is for global supply and also what it contributes to the aviation industry every day.

Ram Menen, former Emirates Head of Cargo, meanwhile retired
Having known Glyn since he joined IATA and having worked closely with him during my active days in IATA, I am really sorry that he is parting company with the association. His passion for the industry and the depth of knowledge of the evolving air cargo rules of engagement is very commendable. He was a part of the team that helped IATA transition from a very bureaucratic organization to what it is now. It was always a pleasure to work with him and, though he is looking at a well-deserved retirement, I do hope that he will continue to contribute to the industry in some shape or form. I do hope that IATA will find somebody as capable as he is to take over the baton from him. I wish him all the best and a happy retirement.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the industry into digitization, and this is the right time to push the industry to take the paper out of the business for good and achieve 100% e-Freight. Further initiatives in digitization will allow the traditional operations to adopt and cater to the evolving needs of ecommerce. In the immediate future, implementation of consistent standards and procedures to help with the logistics and transportation of vaccines will be very critical.

Benoît Dumont, CEO Unilode Aviation Solutions
Glyn leaving:

• Sad to see that a well-respected and knowledgeable professional like Glyn is leaving in such difficult times.
• IATA needs a strong advocate of the cargo community especially under the current circumstances. Surprised that IATA allowed to lose such an important person during this challenging period.

• Given the upcoming challenge for the global cargo industry to support the COVID-19 vaccine distribution globally, IATA should have been able to rely on an experienced, knowledgeable, and well-respected leader to support this. A new person in the job might have it extremely difficult to be successful at this.

New IATA Head of Cargo:

• Must be a “born” cargo person with sound experience in the cargo industry and ideally from different sectors such as Airline, Ground Handling and Forwarder/Logistics.
• Must be a very well networked and respected person known in the industry
• Must be able to drive change
• Must be an innovator with the ability to bring technology into the industry.

Ashwin Bhat, Head of Cargo at Swiss WorldCargo
Glynn has been a great collaborator and a valuable asset for and of IATA. He will certainly be missed in his capacity as leader of IATA cargo, and it has been a pleasure to work with him over the years. His deep-seated experience in the air freight sector has allowed our industry to continue to experience growth over the last years and break new grounds.
His departure comes at a difficult time for our industry. We are confronting myriad challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. However, I am confident that we will continue to be able to successfully collaborate with IATA in order to tackle these challenges in the future.
On behalf of the entire Swiss WorldCargo team, I thank Glynn for his dedication and wish him all of his best in his well-deserved retirement.

Celine Hourcade, TIACA Transition Director
Glyn was my boss at IATA for 9 years and one of my mentors, and I feel extremely lucky to have worked with him.
I have to say the announcement (of his departure) came as a shock to me for many reasons:

• Glyn has been doing a tremendous job at IATA on the cargo side from his early days building CASS to now working tirelessly on keeping cargo moving during the crisis and preparing the next challenge of the future COVID-19 vaccines distribution.
• It is surprising to me that IATA is letting one of its best assets go, especially now.
• Naturally, I am wondering what it means for the cargo activities and focus at IATA: does that mean despite the critical role cargo is playing to save not only lives but also the aviation industry, they are still not considering Cargo as a top priority? I hope not as the IATA cargo team is essential in delivering industry standards in operations, technology, safety, security.
• Finding a successor to Glyn will be challenging to say the least, but I hope IATA will appoint someone with the same passion, vision and drive, with great cargo experience and expertise, who will be able to raise the profile of cargo higher in the aviation agenda. This is what the airlines need and what the key partners of IATA in cargo, like TIACA, need as well.

But I am well placed to say there is a life after IATA 😊 While IATA is losing a great leader who has demonstrated his ability to make things happen, I am sure the air cargo industry will not lose him. I can't wait to know more about his future plans. There are exciting challenges ahead of us: true digital and sustainable transformation of the industry, the transport of the future covid-19 vaccines, the acceleration of e-commerce, the unmanned air cargo. Knowing Glyn, I know he can't stay away from that. 😉

Larry Coyne, CEO Coyne Airways
Glyn is such a good guy, always generous with his time and very effective in what he does.