INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of International Air Transport Association (IATA). In April 1945, the IATA was founded in Havana as a nongovernmental trade organization of international airlines. Its headquarters were established in Montreal. On December 18, 1945, IATA was formally established by a special Act of the Canadian Parliament. IATA's predecessor was the International Air Traffic Association, founded in The Hague on August 28, 1919. Like IATA, the Air Traffic Association, together with the intergovernmental Commission International de Navigation Aérienne (CINA), was concerned with standardization in traffic and commercial matters such as the procedures and forms to be used for handling of traffic, the coordination of timetables, and the regulation of rights and responsibilities of passengers and airline operators to make air transport safer, cheaper, and more convenient. The basic legal instrument regulating IATA's structure, functioning, aims, and objectives are the Articles of Association adopted on April 16 to 19, 1945, which have been repeatedly amended at annual general meetings of the Association. According to the Articles of Association, IATA's aims and objectives are the promotion of safe, regular, and economical air transport; collaboration among air transport enterprises; and cooperation with the ICAO.