Passenger plane crashes around Urmia

Urmia - A passenger plane from Tehran to the origin of Urmia was in motion, before landing at the airport Urmia, fell.

According to IRNA, based on the initial data plane Terman village near the southern shore of Lake Urmia has fallen.

Yet accurate information from the crash and its causes is not available, but residents of neighboring villages landing a bright object near Lake Urmia speak.

According to reports received in the aircraft landing location for the airport but Urmia been successful due to inclement weather are not the landing, and then away from the airport for being in this position down, suddenly has vanished from radar screens.

(source:irna.ir)

Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration
Seal of the Federal Aviation Administration
Agency overview
Formed	August 23, 1958
Preceding agency	Civil Aeronautics Administration
Jurisdiction	United States Government
Annual budget	15.956 billion USD (FY2010)
Agency executive	Randy Babbitt, Administrator
Parent agency	United States Department of Transportation
Website
Official website
Footnotes

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S. (National Airworthiness Authority). The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the group under the name "Federal Aviation Agency", and adopted its current name in 1967 when it became a part of the United States Department of Transportation.

The Federal Aviation Administration's major roles include:

Regulating U.S. commercial space transportation

Regulating air navigation facilities' geometry and Flight inspection standards

Encouraging and developing civil aeronautics, including new aviation technology

Issuing, suspending, or revoking pilot certificates

Regulating civil aviation to promote safety, especially through local offices called Flight Standards District Offices

Developing and operating a system of air traffic control and navigation for both civil and military aircraft

Researching and developing the National Airspace System and civil aeronautics

Developing and carrying out programs to control aircraft noise and other environmental effects of civil aviation

Activities

In December 2000, an organization within the FAA called the Air Traffic Organization, or ATO, was set up by presidential executive order. This became the Air Navigation Service Provider for the airspace of the United States and for the New York (Atlantic) and Oakland (Pacific) oceanic areas. It is a full member of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization.

The FAA issues a number of awards to holders of its licenses. Among these are demonstrated proficiencies as a mechanic, an instructor, a 50-year aviator, or as a safe pilot. The latter, the FAA "Wings Program", provides a series of ten badges for pilots who have undergone several hours of training since their last award. A higher level can be claimed each year. For more information see "FAA Advisory Circular 61-91H".

FAA ordered its inspectors March 18, 2008 to reconfirm that airlines are complying with federal rules after revelations that Southwest Airlines flew dozens of aircraft without certain mandatory inspections. The FAA exercises surprise Red Team drills on national airports annually.

Regions and Aeronautical Center Operations

From an operational standpoint, the FAA is divided into nine regions plus Headquarters in Washington DC and the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The nine regions are

Alaskan – Anchorage Alaska

Northwest Mountain – Renton, WA

Western Pacific – Hawthorne, CA

Southwest – Fort Worth, TX

Central – Kansas City, MO

Great Lakes – Chicago, IL

Southern – Atlanta, GA

Eastern – Jamaica, NY

New England – Burlington, MA

History

FAA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

The Air Commerce Act of May 20, 1926, is the cornerstone of the federal government's regulation of civil aviation. This landmark legislation was passed at the urging of the aviation industry, whose leaders believed the airplane could not reach its full commercial potential without federal action to improve and maintain safety standards. The Act charged the Secretary of Commerce with fostering air commerce, issuing and enforcing air traffic rules, licensing pilots, certifying aircraft, establishing airways, and operating and maintaining aids to air navigation. The newly created Aeronautics Branch, operating under the Department of Commerce assumed primary responsibility for aviation oversight.

In fulfilling its civil aviation responsibilities, the Department of Commerce initially concentrated on such functions as safety regulations and the certification of pilots and aircraft. It took over the building and operation of the nation's system of lighted airways, a task that had been begun by the Post Office Department. The Department of Commerce improved aeronautical radio communications and introduced radio beacons as an effective aid to air navigation.

The Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1934 to reflect its enhanced status within the Department. As commercial flying increased, the Bureau encouraged a group of airlines to establish the first three centers for providing air traffic control (ATC) along the airways. In 1936, the Bureau itself took over the centers and began to expand the ATC system. The pioneer air traffic controllers used maps, blackboards, and mental calculations to ensure the safe separation of aircraft traveling along designated routes between cities.

In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act transferred the federal civil aviation responsibilities from the Commerce Department to a new independent agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The legislation also expanded the government's role by giving them the authority and the power to regulate airline fares and to determine the routes that air carriers would serve.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt split the authority into two agencies in 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). CAA was responsible for ATC, airman and aircraft certification, safety enforcement, and airway development. CAB was entrusted with safety regulation, accident investigation, and economic regulation of the airlines. The CAA was part of the Department of Commerce. The CAB was an independent federal agency.

On the eve of America's entry into World War II, CAA began to extend its ATC responsibilities to takeoff and landing operations at airports. This expanded role eventually became permanent after the war. The application of radar to ATC helped controllers in their drive to keep abreast of the postwar boom in commercial air transportation. In 1946, meanwhile, Congress gave CAA the added task of administering the federal-aid airport program, the first peacetime program of financial assistance aimed exclusively at promoting development of the nation's civil airports.

The approaching era of jet travel, and a series of midair collisions (most notable was the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision), prompted passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958. This legislation gave the CAA's functions to a new independent body, the Federal Aviation Agency. The act transferred air safety regulation from the CAB to the new FAA, and also gave the FAA sole responsibility for a common civil-military system of air navigation and air traffic control. The FAA's first administrator, Elwood R. Quesada, was a former Air Force general and adviser to President Eisenhower.

The same year witnessed the birth of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), created in the wake of the Soviet launching of the first artificial satellite. NASA assumed NACA's role of aeronautical research while achieving world leadership in space technology and exploration.

In 1967, a new U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) combined major federal responsibilities for air and surface transport. Federal Aviation Agency's name changed to the Federal Aviation Administration as it became one of several agencies (e.g., Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Commission) within DOT (albeit the largest). The FAA administrator would no longer report directly to the president but would instead report to the Secretary of Transportation. New programs and budget requests would have to be approved by the DOT, which would then include these requests in the overall budget and submit it to the president.

At the same time, a new National Transportation Safety Board took over the Civil Aeronautics Board's (CAB) role of investigating and determining the causes of transportation accidents and making recommendations to the secretary of transportation. CAB was merged into DOT with its responsibilities limited to the regulation of commercial airline routes and fares.

The FAA gradually assumed additional functions. The hijacking epidemic of the 1960s had already brought the agency into the field of civil aviation security. In response to the hijackings on September 11, 2001, this responsibility is now primarily taken by the Department of Homeland Security. The FAA became more involved with the environmental aspects of aviation in 1968 when it received the power to set aircraft noise standards. Legislation in 1970 gave the agency management of a new airport aid program and certain added responsibilities for airport safety. During the 1960s and 1970s the FAA also started to regulate high altitude (over 500 feet) kite and balloon flying.

FAA Joint Surveillance Site radar, Canton, Michigan

By the mid-1970s, the FAA had achieved a semi-automated air traffic control system using both radar and computer technology. This system required enhancement to keep pace with air traffic growth, however, especially after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 phased out the CAB's economic regulation of the airlines. A nationwide strike by the air traffic controllers union in 1981 forced temporary flight restrictions but failed to shut down the airspace system. During the following year, the agency unveiled a new plan for further automating its air traffic control facilities, but progress proved disappointing. In 1994, the FAA shifted to a more step-by-step approach that has provided controllers with advanced equipment.

In 1979 the Congress authorized the FAA to work with major commercial airports to define noise pollution contours and investigate the feasibility of noise mitigation by residential retrofit programs. Throughout the 1980s these charters were implemented.

In the 1990s, satellite technology received increased emphasis in the FAA's development programs as a means to improvements in communications, navigation, and airspace management. In 1995, the agency assumed responsibility for safety oversight of commercial space transportation, a function begun eleven years before by an office within DOT headquarters. The FAA was responsible for the decision to ground flights after the September 11 attacks.

Criticism

Many experts on the FAA have been critical of what they perceive as fundamental problems with the FAA in conducting oversight on the airlines and pilots, predicated on the belief, as expressed by the FAA itself, that both the airlines and pilots are their customers. Retired NASA Office of Inspector General Senior Special Agent Joseph Gutheinz, who formerly was a Special Agent with both the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and FAA Security, is one of the most outspoken critics of the FAA. Rather than commend the FAA for imposing a 10.2 million dollar fine against Southwest Airlines for its failure to conduct mandatory inspections in 2008 he was quoted as saying the following in an Associated Press story: "Penalties against airlines that violate FAA directives should be stiffer. At $25,000 per violation, (which is how the 10.2 million dollar figure was reached) Gutheinz said, airlines can justify rolling the dice and taking the chance on getting caught. He also said the FAA is often too quick to bend to pressure from airlines and pilots."

(source:wikipedia)

National Transportation Safety Board

National Transportation Safety Board
Official seal and emblem
Agency overview
Formed	April 1, 1967
Preceding agency	Civil Aeronautics Board
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Headquarters	490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, D.C.
Employees	359 (2006)
Annual budget	US$76.7 million (2006)
Agency executives	Deborah Hersman, Chairman Christopher A. Hart, Vice Chairman
Website
www.ntsb.gov

 The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine accidents, pipeline incidents and railroad accidents. When requested, the NTSB will assist the military with accident investigation. The NTSB is also in charge of investigating cases of hazardous waste releases that occur during transportation. Deborah Hersman was appointed as NTSB Chairman in July 2009. Mark Rosenker was appointed as Vice Chairman in 2003, and served as Acting Chairman from March 2005 to January 2009. The agency is based in Washington, D.C.

History

The NTSB was established as an independent organization in 1967 and took over the regulatory and investigative functions of the Civil Aeronautics Board, among other duties. Originally established with strong ties to the U.S. Department of Transportation, these ties were later severed under the Independent Safety Board Act of 1975. The organization receives its authority from Chapter 11, Title 49 of the United States Code. It has investigated over 124,000 aviation incidents since its establishment.

Organization

The board has five members appointed by the President for five year terms, one of whom is designated the chairman by the President and then approved by the Senate for a fixed 2-year term. Another member is designated as vice chairman and becomes acting chairman when there is no formal chairman.

No more than three of the five members can be from the same political party.

Organization within the Board is composed of separate sub-offices for highway safety, maritime safety, aviation safety, railroad, pipeline, and hazardous material investigations, research and engineering, recommendations and communications, academy and administrative law judges. These sub-offices report to the Office of the Managing Director.

Investigations

The NTSB is normally the lead organization in the investigation of a transportation accident within its sphere. However, this power can be surrendered to other organizations if the Attorney General declares the case to be linked to an intentional criminal act, although the NTSB would still provide technical support in such investigations. This occurred during the investigation of the September 11, 2001, attacks when the Department of Justice took over the investigation.

An investigation of an incident within the United States typically starts with the creation of a "go team", composed of specialists in fields relating to the incident. This is followed by the designation of other organizations or corporations as parties to the investigation. The Board may then choose to hold public hearings on the issue. Finally, it will compose a final statement and may issue safety recommendations. The Board has no legal authority to implement, or impose, its recommendations, upon the causative entities. That burden falls upon regulators of the varying modalities, at either the federal or state level.

The NTSB may investigate incidents or accidents occurring outside the United States under certain circumstances. These may include:

accidents or incidents occurring to American-registered or American-owned aircraft (other than an aircraft operated by the Armed Forces or by an intelligence agency of the United States) in foreign airspace if the aircraft both departed and was scheduled to land in the United States. This has happened on rare occasion with respect to flights to and within Alaska that have crashed in Canada.

accidents or incidents occurring to American-registered or American-owned aircraft in countries without a transportation investigative board.

The first time that a NTSB non-criminal-act investigation under way was pre-empted or required to cease investigation was in the case of the Sept. 1, 1983, shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by the Soviets. KAL 007 had taken off from Anchorage, Alaska, and had begun to stray, and then shot down just past Soviet territory. The N.T.S.B. office in Anchorage was notified that the plane was missing just three hours after it had come down in the Sea of Japan and immediately began to look into the matter. Shortly, after that, it was told to cease its investigation and forward to its headquarters in Washington all the material - originals and copies - it had gathered. From there, the information was sent to the State Department. James Michelangelo, chief of the N.T. S. B.'s Anchorage office, was told by headquarters that the Board was off the case and that the State Department would handle the investigation. But the investigation was referred by State Department to the International Civil Aviation Organization of the U.N.

The NTSB, if asked, will also provide technical and other advice for a fee to transportation investigative boards in countries that do not have the equipment or specialized technicians available to undertake all aspects of a complex investigation.

See also

National weather service

(source:wikipedia)

International Air Transport Association airport code

An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The characters prominently displayed on baggage tags attached at airport check-in desks are an example of a way these codes are used.

The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by IATA headquarters in Montreal. The codes are published biannually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory . Most countries use ICAO codes, not IATA codes, in their official aeronautical publications.

IATA also provides codes for railway stations and for airport handling entities. A list of airports sorted by IATA code is available. A list of railway stations codeshared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak, SNCF French Rail, Deutsche Bahn is available. There is also a separate List of Amtrak station codes, three-character codes used by Amtrak for its railway stations in the United States and Canada.

International Civil Aviation Organization

International Civil Aviation Organization
The ICAO flag
Org type	UN agency
Acronyms	ICAO OACI ИКАО إيكاو
Head	Raymond Benjamin
Status	active
Established	April 1947
Headquarters	Montreal, Canada
Website	icao.int

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. Its headquarters are located in the Quartier International of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, its infrastructure, Flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. In addition, the ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, commonly known as the Chicago Convention.

The ICAO should not be confused with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade organization for airlines also headquartered in Montreal, or with the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), an organization for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP's) with its headquarters at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands.

Statute

The 9th edition of the Convention on International Civil Aviation includes modifications from 1948 up to year 2006. The ICAO refers to its current edition of the Convention as the statute, and designates it as ICAO Doc 7300/9. The Convention has 18 Annexes. These Annexes are listed by title in the article Convention on International Civil Aviation.

Membership

International Civil Aviation Organization member states

ICAO members are 189 of the United Nations members and the Cook Islands.

The non-member states are Dominica, Liechtenstein, Niue, Tuvalu, Vatican City and the states with limited recognition.

Standards

ICAO logo.

Top: ICAO acronym in English, French/Spanish and Russian.

Bottom: ICAO acronym in Chinese and Arabic

The ICAO also standardizes certain functions for use in the airline industry, such as the Aeronautical Message Handling System AMHS; this probably makes it a standards organization.

The ICAO defines an International Standard Atmosphere (also known as ICAO Standard Atmosphere), a model of the standard variation of pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity with altitude in the Earth's atmosphere. This is useful in calibrating instruments and designing aircraft.

The ICAO standardizes machine-readable passports worldwide. Such passports have an area where some of the information otherwise written in textual form is written as strings of alphanumeric characters, printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition. This enables border controllers and other law enforcement agents to process such passports quickly, without having to input the information manually into a computer. ICAO publishes Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, the technical standard for machine-readable passports. A more recent standard is for biometric passports. These contain biometrics to authenticate the identity of travellers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny RFID computer chip, much like information stored on smartcards. Like some smartcards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.

Codes registered with ICAO

Both ICAO and IATA have their own airport and airline code systems. ICAO uses 4-letter airport codes and 3-letter airline codes. In the continental United States, the ICAO codes are usually the same as the IATA code, with a prefix of "K" — LAX is KLAX. Canada follows a similar pattern, where a prefix of "C" is usually added to an IATA code to find the ICAO code — YEG is CYEG. In the rest of the world, the codes are unrelated, as the IATA code is phonic and the ICAO code is location-based; for example, Charles de Gaulle Airport has an ICAO code of LFPG, and an IATA code of CDG.

ICAO is also responsible for issuing alphanumeric aircraft type codes that contain 2–4 characters. These codes provide the identification that is typically used in flight plans. An example of this is the Boeing 747 that would use (depending on the variant) B741, B742, B743, etc.

ICAO provides telephony designators to aircraft operators worldwide. These consist of the three-letter airline identifier and a one- or two-word designator. They are usually, but not always, similar to the aircraft operator name. For example, the identifier for Aer Lingus is EIN and the designator is Shamrock, while Japan Airlines International is JAL and Japan Air . Thus, a flight by Aer Lingus numbered 111 would be written as "EIN111" and pronounced "Shamrock One Eleven" on the radio, while a similarly numbered Japan Airlines flight would be written as "JAL111" and pronounced "Japan Air One Eleven".

ICAO maintains the standards for aircraft registration ("tail numbers"), including the alphanumeric codes that identify the country of registration.

Regions and regional offices

ICAO World Headquarters, Montreal, Canada

The ICAO has seven regional offices serving nine regions:

1. Asia and Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand

2. Middle East, Cairo, Egypt

3. Western and Central Africa, Dakar, Senegal

4. South America, Lima, Peru

5. North America, Central America and Caribbean, Mexico City, Mexico

6. Eastern and Southern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

7. Europe and North Atlantic, Paris, France

Leadership

List of Secretaries General

Albert Roper (France) (1944–1951)

Carl Ljungberg (Sweden) (1952–1959)

Ronald MacAllister Macdonnell (Canada) (1959–1964)

Bernardus Tielman Twigt (Netherlands) (1964–1970)

Assad Kotaite (Lebanon) (1970–1976)

Yves Lambert (France) (1976–1988)

Shivinder Singh Sidhu (India) (1988–1991)

Philippe Rochat (Switzerland) (1991–1997)

Renato Claudio Costa Pereira (Brazil) (1997–2003)

Taïeb Chérif (Algeria) (2003–2009)

Raymond Benjamin (France) (2009–present)

List of Council Presidents

Edward Pearson Warner (United States) (1947–1957)

Walter Binaghi (Argentina) (1957–1976)

Assad Kotaite (Lebanon) (1976–2006)

Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez (Mexico) (2006–present)

ICAO and climate change

Emissions from international aviation are specifically excluded from the targets agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, the Protocol invites developed countries to pursue the limitation or reduction of emissions through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ICAO’s environmental committee continues to consider the potential for using market-based measures such as trading and charging, but this work is unlikely to lead to global action. It is currently developing guidance for states who wish to include aviation in an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to meet their Kyoto commitments, and for airlines who wish to participate voluntarily in a trading scheme.

Emissions from domestic aviation are included within the Kyoto targets agreed by countries. This has led to some national policies such as fuel and emission taxes for domestic air travel in the Netherlands and Norway respectively. Although some countries tax the fuel used by domestic aviation, there is no duty on kerosene used on international flights. (Aviation Environment Federation )

ICAO is currently against the inclusion of aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). However, the EU is pressing ahead with its plans to include aviation from 2011.

Investigations of air disasters

Most air accident investigations are carried out by an agency of a country that is associated in some way with the accident - for example the Air Accidents Investigation Branch carried out accident investigations on behalf of the British Government. ICAO has however conducted two investigations involving air disasters, both incidents involving passenger airliners shot down while in international flight over hostile territory. The first incident occurred on 21 February 1973, during a period of tension which would lead to the Israeli-Arab "October war", when a Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by Israeli F-4 jets over the Sinai Peninsula. The second incident occurred on 1 September 1983, during a period of heightened Cold War tension, when a Soviet Su-15 interceptor shot down a straying Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island just west of Sakhalin Island. KAL 007 was carrying 269 people, including 22 children under the age of 12, and a sitting U.S. congressman, Larry McDonald.

(source:wikipedia)

International Air Transport Association

International Air Transport Association
Formation	April 1945, Havana, Cuba
Headquarters	800 Place Victoria (rue Gauvin), Montreal, Canada
Membership	230 airlines
Key people	Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO
Website	www.iata.org

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered.

IATA's mission is to represent, lead, and serve the airline industry. IATA represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic. The Director General and Chief Executive Officer is Giovanni Bisignani. Currently, IATA is present in over 150 countries covered through 101 offices around the globe.

The IATA Head Office are located at 800 Place Victoria (Montreal Stock Exchange Tower) in Montreal since 1977 (having been located at Central Station (Montreal) since its founding) and the executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in Switzerland.

History

IATA was formed on 19 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 about 230 members from more than 140 nations in every part of the world.

Mission

IATA’s stated mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry.All the Airline rules and regulations are defined by IATA.The main aim of IATA is to provide safe and secure transportation to its passengers.

Its stated aims and objectives are as follows:

• to promote safe, regular and economical air transport for the benefit of the people of the world, to foster air commerce and study the problems connected therewith • to promote means for collaboration among air transport enterprises engaged directly or indirectly in international air transport service • to cooperate with ICAO and other international organisations There is always close association and dialogue between ICAO and IATA. We shall now look at the organisation of IATA. Organisation In order to fulfil its aims and objectives IATA is divided into various departments, each with a specific role to fulfil. We shall be looking at the roles of some of these departments. Traffic Department • Provides a forum for traffic coordination discussions • Services as a central source of traffic information for publishers and members • Lists and verifies services of cargo and travel agents worldwide on behalf of the member airlines • Coordinates training programmes for cargo and travel agents • Arranges centralised billing and reporting of agents' sales • Provides a forum for airlines to resolve scheduling problems • Helps represent the industry on airmail issues • Promotes awareness programmes to combat fraud Legal Department • Provides professional legal advise and interpretations to individual members as required from an airline perspective • Distributes and publishes information on legal or regulatory issues of industry-wide interest and importance • Formulates industry positions vis-à-vis bodies like ICAO, the European Community and individual governments

Technical Department • Develops standards to help maximise flight safety, in cooperation with governments, airlines and manufacturers • Advocates airline positions on operational needs • Provides guidance on medical standards for crew, health and hygiene; sets standards for catering and seeks to facilitate travel for all passengers including the handicapped • Assimilates safety statistics and conducts security and safety related seminars • Liaises with governments and international organisations on problems such as drugs smuggling, terrorism, the checking of international documents such as cargo air waybills and passenger ticket fraud

Government and Industry Affairs Department • Lobbies government and international organisations to promote and defend the interests of scheduled airlines • Represents IATA on a regional level and also supports efforts of regional airline organisations on behalf of their member airlines to maintain good working relations with governments • Runs low cost training programmes for staff from developing nations' airlines and related projects • Provides after sales service to new members • Analyses political and economic trends likely to affect airline operations, distributes such information and helps define industry Industry Automotive and Financial Services Department • Operates an industry clearing house handling in excess of USD 25 billion annually • Oversees the functioning of interline agreements designed to offer cargo shipments and passenger convenience • Maintains standard operation criteria and procedures to speed the flow of passengers, baggage and cargo and publishes various types of industry reference material • Assembles, analyses and publishes comparative statistical data for use by airline managements in their planning

Public Relations Department • Represents and defends collective airline interests vis-à-vis the media, consumer groups and the public at large • Serves as a channel for airlines of sizes to benefit from each others' public relations and expertise • Helps market IATA products • Maintains information flow to members

We thus see that various departments of IATA, from their offices at Montréal, Geneva and Singapore do yeomen service not just to the airline industry but also to governments and various related industries. Some of these services are a great help to the Freight Forwarding Industry and other communities. Students too can gain a great deal from IATA's programmes. IATA Cargo and Passenger Agency Programmes Within the Traffic Department there is a specialised section dealing with cargo and travel agency matters. This section is called the IATA Agency Administration Department whose task is to oversee the running of IATA Cargo and Passenger Agency Programmes. Among its diverse functions are: • Listing and certifying service of cargo and travel agents • Coordinating training programmes for cargo and travel agents • Arranging for centralised billing and reporting of cargo and travel agents' sales We shall look at each of these programmes and these functions. The Agency Accreditation Programme Airlines, world over, carry cargo from airport to airport. There are services to be provided before and after carriage. Similarly, airlines need distribution channels beyond their own sales network to sell and market their products worldwide. This need of airlines led to the evolution of the IATA agency. When we discuss about intermediaries we shall look at the details of the functions and working of an IATA agency. The IATA Agency Programme has been steadily built up over a period of almost 60 years. Its main objective is to ensure that all agency outlets used by IATA members are competent business organisations which are capable of providing an accurate and dependable service to the public. It must be noted here that IATA members are airlines. IATA is a voluntary non-political organisation with the world's airlines as its members. An IATA Accredited Cargo Agent also called an IATA Cargo Agent is a freight forwarding agent registered by IATA to act on behalf of IATA appointed member airlines. When looking at the working of an IATA agency we shall get to know how to become one. The IATA Agency Programme also includes commission payments to authorised claimants and the safeguarding of both the airline and the public of practical financial controls. Through a single standard agreement executed with IATA, known as the Cargo Agency Agreement an agent whose approval to represent IATA members is recognised after appropriate appraisal, may hold air waybills and sell transportation on behalf of appointed members. The programme also provides central administration to IATA registered cargo agents. The overall authority for the Cargo Agency Programme lies with the Cargo Agency Conference (CA Conf) which is composed of representatives from IATA member airlines. The CA Conf adopts resolutions directly related to financial, professional and security standards of Cargo Agents.

IATA Training Programmes One important role of IATA is to train airline and agency staff. IATA conducts classroom and distance education programmes in a wide variety of subjects related to air transportation. Details of these programmes are available on IATA's website. The Cargo Agency Settlement System (CASS) CASS is part of IATA’s Cargo Agency Programme run by the Traffic Department. We have already dealt with CASS.

Price setting

One of its core functions is to act as a price setting body for international airfare. In an arrangement going back to 1944, international fare prices have been set through bilateral governmental agreements rather than through market mechanisms. 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.

Originally both domestic and international aviation were highly regulated by IATA. Since 1978 in US and later in Europe, domestic deregulation highlighted the benefits of open markets to consumers in terms of lower fares and companies in terms of more efficient networks. This led to the formation of bilateral "open skies" agreements that weakened IATA's price fixing role. Negotiations are underway since 2003 to create a completely deregulated aviation market covering European and US airspace. 

In recent years 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 IATA. 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. IATA teamed with SITA for an electronic ticketing solution.

The effect of the antitrust investigations has been that 'IATA fares' have been withdrawn  -

Within EU at the end of 2006

Between EU-USA and between EU-Australia at the end of June 2007

Between EU and the rest of the world ended the end of October 2007

Australian competition authority ACCC ended immunity in June 2008 for markets to/from Australia

IATA has responded to the demise of the IATA fares by introducing a new fareclass - Flexfares . However, these new fares are not replacement of the earlier full IATA fare, and a number of airlines (including Lufthansa ) are not participating in this.

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 Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Other activities

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 organisations. Over 80% of airlines' sales come from IATA accredited agents.

IATA administrates worldwide the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) and Cargo Accounts Settlement Systems (CASS) that serve as a facilitator of the sales, reporting and remittance of accredited travel and cargo agencies. Both settlement programmes are ruled by standards and resolutions.

IATA regulates the shipping of dangerous goods and publishes the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual, a globally accepted field source reference for airlines' shipping of hazardous materials.

IATA coordinates the Scheduling process which governs the allocation and exchange of slots at congested airports worldwide, applying fair, transparent and non-discriminatory principles. In consultation with the airline and airport coordinator communities, IATA manages and publishes the industry standards in the Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines (WSG) intended to provide guidance on managing the allocation of slots at airports.

IATA maintains the Timatic database containing cross border passenger documentation requirements. It is used by airlines to determine whether a passenger can be carried, as well as by airlines and travel agents to provide this information to travellers at the time of booking.

IATA publishes standards for use in the airline industry. The Bar Coded Boarding Pass (BCBP) standard defines the 2-Dimensional (2D) bar code printed on paper boarding passes or sent to mobiles phones for electronic boarding passes.

IATA publishes the IATA Rates of Exchange (IROE) four times per year, used with the Neutral Unit of Construction (NUC) fare currency-neutral construction system that superseded the older Fare Construction Unit (FCU) system in 1989.

In 2004, IATA launched Simplifying the Business - a set of five initiatives which it says will save the industry US$6.5 billion every year. These projects are BCBP, IATA e-freight, CUSS (common use self-service), Baggage Improvement Programme (BIP) and the Fast Travel Programme.

In 2003, the IATA Safety Operational Audit (IOSA) was launched with the aim to serve as a standard and worldwide recognized certification of airlines' operational management. The IOSA certification has now become an mandatory requisite for all IATA member airlines.

IATA is member of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG).

(source:wikipedia)