Air Transport Geography

 

A knowledge of geographical areas connected with air transport including countries , major commercial centers and cities code is essential for the efficient handling of the air cargo .

IATA airlines have found it convenient to divide the world into three Traffic Commercial Areas taking into account differing economic , social and business conditions and practices preventing in different parts of the world . These area are known as TC1  , TC2  , TC3  and comprise the following  territories .

1)     IATA Traffic Conference Area 1  (TC1)

                  North America
                  Central America
                  South  America
                  Green Land
                  Bermuda and The Hawaiian Island

2)     IATA Traffic Conference  Area 2  (TC2)

                  Europe including the erstwhile Russia as far as the Urals
                  Iceland
                  The Azores
                  Africa and adjacent Island
                  The Middle East including Iran

3)     IATA Traffic Conference Area  3  (TC3)

                 Asia beginning with Pakistan , Australia and Pacific Island ( except the Hawaiian islands which      are included in Area 1)

Price setting

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.
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 organization 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  –

1. Within EU at the end of 2006
2. Between EU-USA and between EU-Australia at the end of June 2007
3. Between EU and the rest of the world ended the end of October 2007
4. 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.
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