The bilateral system is based on the Chicago Convention and related multilateral treaties. The Chicago Convention was signed in December 1944 and has regulated international air transport ever since. The Convention also contains a number of annexes covering issues such as aviation security, security oversight, airworthiness, navigation, environmental protection and facilitation (acceleration and departure at airports). In the late 1940s, IATA began organizing conferences to set the price of international air travel. IATA Secretary J.G. Gazdik said the organization aims to set prices at a reasonable level, taking due account of operating costs to ensure reasonable profits for airlines. [6] In 1947, at a time when many airlines were state-owned and suffered losses, IATA acted as a government-mandated cartel to establish a fixed tariff structure that would avoid price competition. The first conference on transport was held in 1947. [7] in Rio de Janeiro and reached unanimous agreement on some 400 resolutions.
William Hildred, Director General of IATA, said that about 200 of the resolutions of the Rio de Janeiro conference are co-edating with the creation of a single structure for international air fares. [8] Air Agreements (SAAs) are formal treaties between countries – accompanying Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and diplomatic exchange notes. It is not mandatory to have an ASA for the operation of international services, but cases where there are services without a contract are rare. The Chicago Convention did not lead to a consensus on the economic regulation of the aviation industry. According to Warren Koffler, IATA was created to fill the resulting void and provide international air carriers with a pricing mechanism. [5] In the early 1950s, IATA`s pricing system required airlines to differentiate themselves by the quality of their passenger experience. [10] IATA responded by imposing strict restrictions on the quality of air traffic. In 1958, IATA made a formal decision banning airlines from serving sandwiches to economy passengers with “luxurious” ingredients. [11] [12] Economist Walter Adams found that limited competition for services, allowed by IATA, tended to simply redirect traffic from one air carrier to another, without increasing the overall air transport market.
[13] The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is the trade association of the international aviation industry worldwide. Out of 57 founding members in 1945, IATA today represents about 290 airlines in 120 countries. IATA members, which carry 82% of the world`s air traffic, are the world`s leading passenger and cargo carriers. IATA was founded in April 1945 in Havana, Cuba. It succeeds the International Air Traffic Association, founded in 1919 in The Hague, the Netherlands. [4] [a better source needed] When it was created, IATA was made up of 57 airlines from 31 countries. Much of IATA`s early work was technical in nature and IATA contributed to the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which was reflected in the annexes to the Chicago Convention, the international treaty that still governs international air transport technology today. One of the first ATAs after World War II was the Bermuda Agreement, signed in 1946 by Britain and the United States. The features of this agreement have become models for the thousands of such agreements that were to follow, although in recent decades some of the traditional clauses of these agreements have been modified (or “liberalized”) in accordance with the “open skies” policy of some governments, particularly the United States. [2] Freight carries more than 52 million tons of goods per year, less than 1% of the volume of world trade, but 35% of the value, with more than $6 billion of goods transported by air.
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