It is the international non-governmental organization. The headquarters is located in Montreal (Canada). The European Center is located in Geneva (Switzerland). IATA has 101 offices worldwide.
IATA was organized on August 28, 1919 in The Hague (Netherlands) as a union of airlines called the International Air Traffic Association. Its goal was to organize safe, regular and cost-effective air transport of people and goods, as well as to facilitate the joint work of all enterprises involved in the process of international air transport. The association was organized after the First World War and ceased to exist due to the Second World War.
International Air Transport Association was a successor association and it was established in April 1945 in Havana (Cuba). It had 57 members from 31 countries, mainly European and North American.
As of March 27, 2006, 265 airlines are members of IATA, which operate 94% of all international flights.
The Association acts as a coordinator and representative of the interests of the air transport industry in such areas as flight safety, flight operations, tariff policy, maintenance, aviation security, development of international standards in cooperation with ICAO, etc.
The most important area of activity of this association is the organization of mutual settlements between air transport entities. The process is founded on the system of sales of transportation on a neutral airplane ticket. IATA Clearing House began its activities in 1948, which provided the organization of mutual settlements between companies. And the international neutral base of ticket sales of BSP IATA airlines was created in 1972. Soon it covered all air transport in the world, except for the United States (they were the first to create their own similar system – ARC, which later served as the basis for BSP) and the CIS countries (with the exception of Moldova).
The International Air Transport Association has fully switched to the sale of air travel using electronic tickets since 2007.
IATA assigns codes to airports, airlines and aircraft types for classification.
