Lecture 7: International and national aviation organizations, their role in air transportation.

1. ICAO, IATA, basic directions of their activity

2. Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, its role

3. Aviation law

ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), specialized technical agency of the United Nations, created as a permanent body on April 4, 1947, for the purpose of promoting the safe and orderly development of civil aviation throughout the world. The agency sets international standards and regulations necessary for the safety, efficiency, and regularity of air transport. The ICAO also serves as a medium for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its member nations, and it provides technical assistance to countries who need help maintaining civil aviation facilities or meeting the global standards set by the ICAO. The ICAO also produces technical publications and special studies.

The agency has been instrumental in improving meteorological services, air traffic control, air-to-ground communications, search and rescue operations, and other measures for safe international flight. It also has done much to simplify customs and immigration procedures and public health regulations related to international air travel. The fight against airplane hijacking and other terrorist attacks and the effects of aircraft noise on the environment also have been of special concern to the ICAO.

The ICAO is composed of 180 member nations that meet once every three years at an assembly. Its executive body in the interim is a council consisting of representatives from 33 member nations who are elected by the assembly on the basis of their relative importance in international air transport and of geographical distribution. The ICAO has its own secretariat, headed by a secretary general appointed by the council, and several permanent technical committees. The agency headquarters is in Montréal.

IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in Switzerland.

IATA's mission is to represent, lead, and serve the airline industry. IATA represents some 240 airlines comprising 84% of scheduled international air traffic. Currently, IATA is present in over 150 countries covered through 101 offices around the globe.

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 243 members (as of April 2012) from more than 126 nations in every part of the world.

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.

One of its core functions was 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 had been granted a special exemption by each of the main regulatory authorities in the world to consult prices with each other through this body.

For the benefit for all parties involved IATA aims at:

· For consumers, IATA simplifies the travel and shipping processes, while keeping costs down. Passengers can make one telephone call to reserve a ticket, pay in one currency and then use the ticket on several airlines in several countries.

· IATA allows airlines to operate safely, securely, efficiently and economically under clearly defined rules.

· IATA serves as an intermediary between airlines and passenger as well as cargo agents via neutrally applied agency service standards and centralized financial systems.

· A large network of industry suppliers and service providers gathered by IATA provides solid expertise to airlines in a variety of industry solutions.

· For governments, IATA seeks to ensure they are well informed about the complexities of the aviation industry to ensure better, long-term decisions.

MINISTRY OF INFRASTRUCTURE OF UKRAINE

The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central bodies of the executive power that provides control over transportation-road complex and communications. It is fully based on the former Ministry of Transportation and Communication. The ministry also performed functions in realization of the government policy in the field of tourism.

In December 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych reorganized the former Transport and Communications Ministry into the Ministry of Infrastructure, and on 12 May 2011, the Ministry of Infrastructure was approved as the successor of the Transport and Communications Ministry.

The ministry consists of the central body of ministry headed by its leadership composed of a minister, his/hers first deputy, and other deputies in assistance to the minister. Parts of the ministry compose several state administrations that are specialized in certain field and coordinate operations of government companies.

State Agencies are:

· State Aviation Service of Ukraine

· Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia)

· State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor)

· Ukrainian Sea and River Fleet (in 2011 transformed into the State Inspection of Ukraine in Security of Sea and River Transportation)

· State Autotransportation Service

· State Service of Communication (part of the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine)

· National Agency of Ukraine in preparation and conducting of Euro-2012

· State Agency of Ukraine in Tourism and Resorts

On June 30, 2011 State Service of Communication, State Administration of Communication (less the State Company "UkrPoshta"), and Telecommunication Systems and Information Security of the Security Service of Ukraine were consolidated into the Administration of State Special Communications Service of Ukraine. The Administration is given a special status as a central body of executive power.

AVIATION LAW

Aviation law is a body of international and domestic law governing various aspects of civil aviation. Agreements concerning activities in space have also been established.

The importance of modern aviation was recognized during World War II, when a conference was convened in Chicago in 1944 to discuss regulation of postwar international civil aviation. The resulting Chicago Convention of 1944 codified public international aviation law. Contracting nations adopted international regulations, standards, and procedures for the use of communication systems and air navigation aids; for airport characteristics; for rules of the air and air traffic control; for airworthiness of aircraft; for licensing of operating and mechanical personnel; for aeronautical maps and charts; for log books; and for measures to facilitate air navigation.

The established principle that every nation has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory was reaffirmed. Every civil aircraft in international aviation must be registered, carry the nationality of the country of registration, and bear appropriate identification markings. The convention granted transit rights (that is, the right to fly over another nation's territory and the right to land there for nontraffic purposes, such as refueling) and permitted nonscheduled, charter, and private flights.

A similar arrangement in traffic rights (to pick up and set down passengers, cargo, and mail) was not adopted, and bilateral negotiations had to be carried out to effect such arrangements. The American principle of “freedom of the air” and the British principle of “order in the air” were reconciled in 1946 in Bermuda at a meeting between the United States and Britain. Subsequent bilateral agreements are based on the so-called Bermuda Principles covering the regulation of routes, capacity, and tariff.

Another outcome of the Chicago conference was the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which was formally established in 1947 as an agency of the United Nations (UN) to foster development and promote cooperation in international civil aviation. The organization has a legal committee that is responsible for producing treaties, conventions, and protocols in those areas of aviation in which uniformity is desirable.

A basic agreement in international aviation law is the Warsaw Convention of 1929. This convention provided for presumptive but limited liability of an air carrier for personal injury or death of a passenger and damage to goods in international air carriage. Liability for death or personal injury to a passenger was limited to $8,300. The Hague Protocol was adopted in 1965. Constituting a series of amendments to the Warsaw Convention, the protocol doubles the liability limit. The United States was not a party to the conference at Warsaw that produced the Warsaw Convention, but adhered to it in 1934. By 1969 it had not ratified or adhered to The Hague Protocol. In 1965, indeed, the United States gave notice of its intention to denounce the Warsaw Convention because of its low limit of liability. The Americans withdrew this notice, however, when air carriers, under the auspices of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association, agreed to raise this limit to $75,000 with respect to passengers traveling to or from or passing through the United States. This so-called Montréal Agreement was then incorporated in airline tariffs, which were accepted by the national Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). A new treaty, the Guatemala Protocol to the Warsaw Convention, was enacted. It was signed by the United States in 1970. The protocol provided for absolute liability on the part of the airline as well as for an unbreakable limitation of damages to $100,000. The Guatemala Protocol was later amended to provide that the limit would be 100,000 Special Drawing Rights (units of international monetary exchange administered by the International Monetary Fund). This new treaty, entitled the Montréal Protocols 3 and 4, was denied ratification by the U.S. Senate in 1983.

The ICAO's legal committee, in 1963, produced the Tokyo Convention, dealing with offenses committed on aircraft. The many aircraft hijackings since 1968 brought pressure to ratify the treaty, and in May 1969 the U.S. Senate consented to the convention's ratification. More stringent security measures for international flights were called for in an amendment to the Chicago Convention adopted by the ICAO council in 1985.

NATIONAL LAW

All countries have aviation legislation designed to conform to the international rules. In the United States, domestic law is embodied in the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 and the resulting federal aviation regulations. The Department of Transportation assumed some of the duties of the CAB, and that agency was disbanded by 1985. States have their own local rules on intrastate air traffic.

Aircraft noise was the subject of a law enacted by the federal government in 1968, giving the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration the authority to set noise limitations for new aircraft and to order equipment that would reduce noise of existing aircraft. Thus, supersonic aircraft (SSTs) were required to fly over U.S. territory at subsonic speeds in the 1970s.

Aviation security came under greater legal scrutiny following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States in which hijackers crashed two commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. The United States Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in November 2001 in response to the attacks, which exposed a number of weaknesses in airport and airline security. The new law expanded the number of baggage screeners, imposed standards for their training, and made them federal employees for an interim period of time. Beginning in January 2002 it required that all passenger luggage, including checked luggage, be screened. The law also stipulated that all luggage be put through special explosives-detecting devices by the end of 2002. In addition, the law increased the number of armed federal air marshals flying on domestic flights and required international airlines to turn over advance copies of passenger lists to U.S. Customs officials for the purpose of performing background checks to screen out suspected terrorists.

The new law required flight instructors to report the names of any foreign nationals seeking training on aircraft weighing more than 5,600 kg (12,500 lb)—at least the size of a business-class jet. A number of hijackers, who were all foreign nationals, had attended flight training schools in Florida. Flight instructors were required to report the names to the U.S. attorney general’s office for screening, and the attorney general’s office was mandated to review the background of any foreign national seeking to sell, lease, or charter a plane weighing more than 5,600 kg.

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