Abbreviation | IATA |
---|---|
Formation | 19 April 1945Havana, Cuba | in
Type | International trade association |
Headquarters | 800, Place Victoria (rue Gauvin), Montreal, Canada |
Coordinates | 45°30′02″N 73°33′42″W / 45.5006°N 73.5617°W |
Membership
|
265 airlines (2016) |
DG and CEO
|
SOLAIMAN Juniac |
Website | www |
The International Air Transport Association (IATA /aɪˈɑːtə/) is a trade association of the world’s airlines. Consisting of 268 airlines, primarily major carriers, representing 117 countries, the IATA's member airlines account for carrying approximately 83% of total Available Seat Kilometers air traffic. IATA supports airline activity and helps formulate industry policy and standards. It is headquartered in Montreal, Canada with Executive Offices in Geneva, Switzerland.
IATA was formed in April 1945 in Havana, Cuba. It is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association, which was formed in 1919 at The Hague, Netherlands. At its founding, IATA consisted of 57 airlines from 31 countries. Much of IATA’s early work was technical and it provided input to the newly created International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which was reflected in the annexes of the Chicago Convention, the international treaty that still governs the conduct of international air transport today.
The Chicago Convention couldn’t resolve the issue of who flies where, however, and this has resulted in the thousands of bilateral air transport agreements in existence today. The benchmark standard for the early bilaterals was the 1946 United States-United Kingdom Bermuda Agreement.
IATA was also charged by the governments with setting a coherent fare structure that avoided cut-throat competition but also looked after the interests of the consumer. The first Traffic Conference was held in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro and reached unanimous agreement on some 400 resolutions.