The
International Air Transport Association is an
international industry trade group of
airlines headquartered in
Montreal,
Quebec,
Canada, where the
ICAO also happens to be headquartered, even though they are different entities. The main objective of the organization is to assist airline companies to achieve lawful
competition and
uniformity in prices.
IATA was formed in
April 1945, in
Havana,
Cuba. It is the successor to the
International Air Traffic Association, founded in
The Hague in 1919, the year of the world's first international scheduled services. At its founding, IATA had 57 members from 31 nations, mostly in
Europe and
North America. Today it has over 240 members from more than 140 nations in every part of the globe.
For fare calculations IATA has divided the world in three regions:
#South, Central and North America.
#Europe, Middle East and Africa. IATA Europe includes the geographical Europe and
Morocco,
Algeria and
Tunisia.
#Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
To this end, airlines have been granted a special exemption by each of the main
regulatory authorities in the world to consult prices with each other through this body. However, the organisation has been accused of acting as a
cartel, and many
low cost carriers are not full IATA members. The
European Union's competition authorities are currently investigating the body. In 2005,
Neelie Kroes, the
European Commissioner for Competition, made a proposal to lift the exception to consult prices. In July 2006, the
United States Department of Transportation also proposed to withdraw
antitrust immunity
[US DOT Antitrust Immunity ]. IATA teamed with
SITA for an electronic ticketing solution
[ SITA Press Release on eTicketing ].
IATA assigns 3-letter
IATA Airport Codes and 2-letter
IATA airline designators, which are commonly used worldwide.
ICAO also assigns airport and airline codes. For
Rail&Fly systems, IATA also assigns
IATA train station codes. For delay codes, IATA assigns
IATA Delay Codes.
IATA is pivotal in the worldwide accreditation of
travel agents with exception of the
U.S., where this is done by the
Airlines Reporting Corporation. Permission to sell
airline tickets from the participating carriers is achieved through national member organizations.
They also regulate the shipping of
dangerous goods and publish the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual, a globally accepted field source reference for airlines shipping of
hazardous materials.