TEXT 8. IATA - HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The International Air. Transport Association was founded in 1945 by the airlines of -many countries to meet the problems created by the rapid expansion of civil air services at the close of the Second World War. It is the successor in function of the previous International Air Traffic Association, organized in The Hague at the very dawn of regular air transport in 1919. As a non-governmental organization, it draws its legal existence from a special Act of the Canadian Parliament, given Royal Assent in December 1945. In both its organization and its activity, IATA has been closely associated with ICAO - the International Civil Aviation Organization which was also established in 1945 as the international agency of governments which creates world standards for the technical regulation of civil aviation. IATA deals with the non-political aspects of air transport operation; its work begins only after governments have decided which companies they wish to license and how they wish to exchange traffic and other rights between them. But from that point on, the activity of IATA spreads through virtually every phase of air transport operations. The basic source of authority in IATA is the Annual General Meeting, in which all active members have an equal vote. Year-round policy direction is provided by an elected Executive Committee and its creative work is largely carried out by its Financial, Legal, Technical, Traffic and Medical Committees. Negotiation on fares and rates agreements is carried out through the IATA Traffic Conferences, with separate Conferences considering Passenger and Cargo matters. Members of IATA Committees are nominated by individual airlines, but serve as experts on behalf of the entire industry, subject to the regulation and review of the Executive Committee. In the Traffic Conference, however, delegates act as representatives of their individual companies. While the Executive Committee fixes the terms of reference of these Conferences, their decisions are subject only to. The review of governments and cannot be altered by any other party of IATA. IATA administration is carried out under a Director General and five Assistant Directors General - Traffic, Technical, General Counsel, Administration and Finance, Special Governmental and Industry Affairs, The Association has two main offices, one in Montreal and one in Geneva. Traffic Service Offices are also maintained in New York and Singapore. Regional. Technical Representatives are based in Bangkok, Geneva, London, Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro. IATA's budget is financed from the dues paid by its members, largely in proportion to the part of the total international air traffic which each carries. Some IATA activities are self-supporting through charges for services rendered. OPERATIONS AND COMMERCE IATA member airlines originate from more than 80 nations and their routes cross almost every country of the world at one time or another. To ensure that these aircraft carrying the people of the world are able to proceed with maximum safety and efficiency, under clearly defined and universally understood regulations, is IATA's operational task. To ensure that people and their goods can move anywhere on this vast global network as easily as though they were on a single airline within a single country is the IATA commercial objective. Plainly these two categories of IATA activities are closely related and bear a connection between the cost of operation of the airlines, the airlines' desire to keep both as low as possible commensurate with safety. There is a constant and progressive effort to simplify and standardize devices, procedures and documentation, within the airlines themselves, and among governments, manufacturers and with other international organizations. FINANCIAL The IATA Financial Committee deals with all aspects of the accounting and settlement between airlines for the business they do with each other or on each other's behalf; and is concerned as well with many of the common problems of the airlines in regard to currency and exchange, taxation, charges, insurances and statistics. Over the.years, IATA has been able to reconcile the financial and accounting systems developed independently in many parts of the world before airlines were extensively linked by the intercontinental routes. To do so, it has developed and is constantly working to improve standard Manuals of Revenue Accounting Practices, cost reporting forms and forms for operating, profit and loss surplus statements and similar documents, and to make possible the application of electronic data processing techniques in accounting and other fields. The Financial Committee also carries on extensive studies of special insurance problems, taxation charges and similar matters. INTERNATIONAL LAW The Legal Committee of IATA holds a watching brief on behalf of the airlines over international conventions on public and private air law, conflicts of law and arbitration. It is principally concerned with formulating and representing the airlines' views on the basic international conventions affecting the liability of air carriers and their legal relationships with their customers, with third parties on the ground, and with questions of rights of aircraft in international operations, the legal aspects of the carriage of nuclear materials and other related subjects. Since the sale of a ticket or the issuance of a cargo waybill constitutes a contract between the airline and the customer, international airline documents must be legally valid under many different systems of laws. The IATA Legal Committee has thus been responsible for preparing the legal ground on which the whole structure of standardized interline agreement and documentation - tickets, baggage checks, air waybills and the like - has been erected. One of its major achievements has been the realization of standardized worldwide Conditions of Contract governing the carriage of passengers and cargo. A further detailed and uniform Conditions of Carriage for all aspects of transport is in preparation. If achieved, it will be the first such document in the history of transportation.
TECHNICAL Cooperation among the airlines in operational and technical matters is channeled through the IATA Technical Committee, its annual Technical Conference and its various global and regional working groups. The IATA Technical activity is founded upon full and free exchange of information and experience between all the airlines. Out of this data the airlines distil the common requirements and observations which guide the standardization and unification of their own activities, determine their practical advice and assistance to governments, and act as signposts along the road to future development in transport aeronautics. Policies approved are recorded in a Technical Manual. IATA has played, and continues to play, an important part in the drafting of the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices which form the accepted international pattern for the technical regulation of civil aviation, and cooperates closely with ICAO to encourage governments to implement them fully and keep them up to date. IATA works in much the same way with such other organizations as the International Telecommunication Union, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Standards Organization. Beyond this member airlines join through IATA to consult with ICAO and individual states or with the countries comprising a particular region in theplanning and implementation of air navigation facilities and services. This work is generally carried out under the control of the IATA Technical Committee by global and regional working groups which deal with flew and developing problems, in all technical field of air transport operations.
TRAFFIC IATA's most complex role is in the field of Traffic - a term which embraces the commercial activities of the airlines. As an airline association, IATA is particularly concerned with interline arrangement - the standardization of forms, procedures, handling agreements and other factors which make possible the quick and easy exchange of traffic between airlines. These matters are considered and resolved under the guidance of the Traffic Committee as Trade Association work: A) for passenger matters by - 1) a Passenger Services Conference, 2) a Passenger Agency Conference; b) forCargo matters by - 1) a Cargo Services Conference, 2) a Cargo Agency Conference,
each Conference being assisted by specialist Working Groups. Beyond this, however, IATA is also a quasi-public agency, to which many governments have delegated the responsibility for negotiating international agreements on international rates and fares subject to their approval. For administrative purposes, there are three Tariff Coordinating Conference areas: No. 1- for the Western Hemisphere, Greenland and the Hawaiian Islands; No. 2 - for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, including Iran; and No. 3 - for Asia, Australia and the Islands of the Pacific. Tariff Coordinating is organized within the framework of these areas, or within clearly defined sub regions in each Conference area and on an inter Conference basis, but as a practical matter, the inter-relation of fares and rates throughout the world makes it generally advisable that all of these Conference sessions be held at the same time and in the same place. Worldwide composite Conference meetings are normally held at two-year intervals, in the fall of the year to review fares and other matters for passenger operations, and the following spring to consider rates and procedures involving air cargo. Special Conference meetings can be called also for regions or areas, in the intervals, and some action can be taken by mail vote, subject to the usual rules and government approval. The sessions of the Conferences are prefaced by months of careful preparation and study, not only by the continuing Traffic working groups, but also by the Cost Committee which forecasts the cost of operation to which fares and rates are related. In the Conferences, every member airline holds a single vote. All agreements must be reached by unanimity; thus, every airline, regardless of size, also holds a veto. The Conferences may accept advice and counsel from other parts of IATA, but within their terms of reference they are responsible only to governments, and thus to the public, for what they do. However, in the new Tariff Coordinating Conference there is room for limited agreements and admission of certain parties as observers. The resulting structure of IATA Traffic and Tariff Coordinating Conference Agreement comprises about 1,000 resolutions, including specified and constructed fares and rates between more than 200,000 pairs of points on the world network. It covers virtually every phase of commercial activity, both in principle and detail. This is the legislation on international air commerce. Like all effective legislation the IATA resolutions are policed by a Compliance Office which, under the Director General, strives to assure that members respect the obligations which they have voluntarily assumed. To weld its member airlines into a single commercial network, IATA has produced a series of interline agreements between them (to which many non IATA and domestic airlines and sea carriers are parties as well) covering all phases of passenger, baggage and cargo handling, reservations codes and the like. In more and more of these areas, IATA works to adapt these forms and procedures to processing by computer and teletype. For the public IATA achieves the transformation of a ticket or air waybill into a magic carpet for international air transport from anywhere to anywhere despite barriers of geography, national boundaries, language, currency and differences in local, commercial, political, legal, social and economic concepts. Through IATA agreements, the airlines have adopted standard codes of relations with their passenger and cargo agents and consolidators, which Assure the agents of fair, uniform and non-discriminatory treatment. Special boards and committees screen all agencies, examine their qualifications to properly both the public and the airlines and, in effect, to act on behalf the airlines in choosing their middlemen. "Such arrangements as these are normally worked out by the Traffic Committee and various expert working groups, often with the close assistance of оtherstanding committees, and by the Assistant Director General-Traffic and his staff. However, they have their actual application mainly through formal resolutions which are subject to the approval of governments before they can become effective. Virtually every IATA traffic action is the result of this unusually comprehensive and successful process of international agreement reached through the IATA Conferences. The Traffic Conference process arises from the peculiar nature of air transport. Every inch of the world's surface is accessible by air, and the Wines fly between most of its major cities over a maze of interrelated routes. Yet each government reserves complete control over its own share of the Airspace and the right to determine what its air services may charge the public. International fares and rates - and the conditions which underline them - must therefore be fixed by international agreements in which virtually every country has some direct or indirect concern. Most nations have agreed that the enormous and complicated work of negotiating detailed agreements to meet the constantly changing conditions of 11w1d air commerce should be delegated in the first instance to the IATA Conferences, and that these agreements should become effective only after all Interested governments have reviewed and approved them. The increasing importance of air cargo is reflected in many ways within 1(r IATA organization. For example a special Traffic group has been set up which pays particular attention to the expanding use of special containers and pellets for transportation of freight. With unit load devices many individual p1lCkages which would have been shipped separately are consolidated into a single unit load. This results in less handling on the ground as well as in the aircraft, and provides fast door-to-door service with maximum protection for the goods. The resulting savings are passed on to the consumer. In Traffic, as in all IATA matters, the keynote is airline cooperation, and the result is progressively lower-cost service throughout the world.
MEDICAL The IATA Medical Committee is composed of medical officers and advisers of the airlines and deals with all physiological and psychological factors which might affect the safety, comfort and efficiency of air crews and passengers. The Committee deals in preventive medicine, the result of which is best measured by the fact that infants, elderly persons and the severely ill can as a general rule travel safely long distances by air, even at the speeds and altitudes of modern airline operation. It is also a channel of airline cooperation with the World Health Organization.
INTERNATIONAL AIR MAIL IATA has many other tasks outside the formal framework of the Committee and Conferences. In postal matters, IATA has become increasingly, if informally, concerned with questions relating to the speedy and expeditious handling of the mails, and with the rates which are paid by governments to foreign airlines for the transportation of mail. It maintains close liaison with the Universal Postal Union on these matters, and has consistently encouraged reduction in air mail postage rates to the general public.
SECURITY AND FRAUD PREVENTION Over the years, many services have been added to the IATA organization. Among these is security and fraud prevention which was initially established as a fraud prevention group to deal with swindles and fraudulent use to tickets and other travel documents. The group achieved a marked decrease in attempted frauds and thus provided protection to both IATA Members and the traveling public. In 1969 a growing awareness of major security problems caused the industry to study the need for an overall security organization. IATA subsequently formed a Security Advisory Committee with a director on the staff of the Director General. The titles of the standing sub-committees – Aircraft and Airport Protection, Property Crimes and Revenue Crimes - clearly show the scope of the security activities.
REDUCTION RED TAPE In an industry based on speed, economy and service, red tape is a serious Matter. Customs, immigration, and health regulations intended for an era past, hamper and delay the efficient transportation of passengers and cargo. Delays can add millions of dollars to the cost of operation. With international airlines operating into almost 200 countries, and their operations subject to the regulation requirements of numerous public authorities in every country, the word cooperation looms large in the airline vocabulary. Cooperation - perhaps co-ordination is more accurate at this stage - starts with the airlines themselves. A program to cut red tape is worked out and constantly reviewed by the IATA Facilitation Advisory Group. For implementation it passes into the hands of more than 100 airline personnel at the headquarters of their respective airlines throughout the world. The next step is to consult with the various governmental inspection services in a cooperative effort to work out simpler clearance documentation and procedures at airport where international passengers or cargo arrive and depart. Cooperation carries right up the line from the individual nation to the United Nations and its specialized agencies, particularly ICAO which sets recommended standards and practices for governments for cutting red tape through Annex 9 to its Convention. Since both IATA and ICAO came into being there has been constant collaboration. Numerous other international organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, cooperate with IATA to ensure the facilitation of air transport аndto guard against the aircraft particular vulnerability - delay.
OTHER IATA SERVICES IATA performs many other widely varied functions. It collects and issues Industry statistics. It is a documentation center and publisher on behalf of its members, issuing internal manuals, tabulations of airline distance, technical surveys, reports, and other important industry information. The international airline industry's concern with environmental problems in all forms lead to the establishment of an IATA Environmental Protection Advisory Committee with industry representatives from commercial, technical, legal and financial branches of the Member airlines. This advisory Committee is intended to assist each company in developing a similar Multidepartmental framework within their own organization thus permitting for the first time a consolidated approach to the problems of the environment. In the field of public relations, IATA maintains a worldwide information program, affords a source of reference and source material for students of air transport, acts as a spokesman for the industry and provides a number of special publicity and promotional services. It also provides a means of cooperation between public relations departments of the airlines and brings them together in biennial IATA PR Conferences. WORLD COOPERATION Since they arise from the basic necessities of international air transport, IATA's aims and its achievements are essentially practical. Yet it also represents a process of cooperation between the enterprises of many nations, which is older than all but a few of its members, and a habit of tolerance, understanding and mutual adjustment which has become ingrained in all airline activity. This world airline cooperation through IATA has many purposes. The primary one, in the words of IATA's Articles of Association, is “to promote safe, regular and economical air transport for the benefit of the peoples of the world”. The attached IATA Committee Organization chart shows clearly the activities undertaken by its members through their association in IATA.
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