Air transportation in the 1980's, and the role of IATA : address :

Abstract

"(Ladies &) Gentlemen, I am grateful for this opportunity to talk to you about the developing scene in the civil air transport industry. And to take a look at the evolving role of IATA - the International Air Transport Association - in the 1980s. It is particularly gratifying to me that some of you are from younger countries where airlines are growing and preparing themselves to play their part in international commerce as an instrument for national development. About two-thirds of present ICAO members did not exist at the time when ICAO and IATA were created or re-created in the mid 40s. If anything, this is indicative of the major changes which have taken place since in world aviation. It may be helpful if I start by giving a brief description of IATA and its activities. The organization is the trade association for scheduled international and domestic airlines. There are currently more than 100 member airlines from some 85 nations. An additional 137 airlines are our interline partners as signatories to the multilateral IATA standard interline agreements. It is a voluntary, non-exclusive, non-political organization which follows democratic decision-making procedures. I emphasize that it is non-political. This means that the airline representatives from nations with differing economies and political philosophies can and do come together to discuss matters of mutual interest in a friendly and cooperative manner. This is to the benefit not only of the airlines themselves but of their all-important customers - the passengers and cargo shippers worldwide. Furthermore, their governments - which for political reasons sometimes simply cannot talk to each other - greatly benefit from this neutral forum and instrument for the solution of aviation problems. Here, I should add sometimes there are also other problems with heavier political overtones ...