IATA's Peter Cerda (right) speaks on stage with Routes Editor-in-Chief David Casey at Routes Americas 2024 in Bogota.
The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) said Peter Cerda, the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Americas regional vice president, will become its new executive director and CEO in March.
Cerda, who will retain his role at IATA as well, will replace Jose Ricardo Botelho, who has been ALTA’s CEO since June 2020.
“IATA has agreed that Peter can continue in his current role and consolidate both leadership positions to strengthen the management and work of ALTA and IATA in the region,” ALTA said in a statement.
Cerda has been with IATA since 1996, becoming a familiar figure in Latin American and Caribbean aviation circles lobbying governments on behalf of the region’s airlines. He has long pushed for the region’s governments to lower taxation on airlines.
Taxes on flight tickets often drive up the cost of traveling to the region to the detriment of local economies, Cerda has asserted.
“There are periods of time in the year—the Caribbean high season—when it’s more expensive to fly from the U.S. to the Caribbean, in some cases, than it is to fly from Miami to Dubai,” he told Aviation Week recently. “A lot of it has to do with the amount of taxes and fees that are added onto the ticket.”
Cerda has pushed governments to use taxes on airlines to fund infrastructure improvements at airports. “If it goes into the central coffers, it’s not being actually reinvested into airports or aviation,” he said.
In his role at IATA, Cerda has also emphasized safety as the airline industry’s top priority. Speaking Feb. 10 at the Routes Americas conference in Nassau, Bahamas, Cerda said the recent fatal accident near Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) was a “wake-up call. Safety is the most important day-to-day activity that our industry is working on—and we have to continue that.”
ALTA praised Ricardo for guiding the organization through an “exceptionally challenging period . . . skillfully navigating the turbulence of the pandemic.”
Cerda will officially take over ALTA’s CEO position on March 15. He has a “clear mission: to contribute to sustainable development over time and the sustainability of air transport in Latin America and the Caribbean,” ALTA said.
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