Part XI: IATA 1) Membership Background

2) Two Basic Documents Establish IATA:

The headquarters of IATA is in Mtl. & IATA has been incorporated in Canada under Canadian law via a special act of Parliament in April 1945. It is a corporate body in the form an association. The Act of incorporation is a short document & is a framework document. It only provides for the fact that an association is hereby incorporated & the fact that that association has certain objectives & the objectives are set forth in para. 3 of the act, which are very wide & general.

See casebook for the objectives.
Para. 4 stipulates that the head office of IATA will be in the city of Montreal.
Para. 5 gives IATA the power to make by-laws, rules & regulations & establishes the basic structure of it, vesting the Executive Committee (Board of Governors) w/ the main administrative powers of the organization & these are stipulated in paragraphs 5b & 6 (i.e K, borrow funds).
Articles of Association:

-EXAM –articles of association (members & rights of member & provision of conduct on air traffic) p.45+ & the rules for conduct p.65+
The actual rules of functioning of IATA are not laid in the act, but are laid down in the Articles of Association. They are comparable to the statutes of a company, which define the rights of the members of the associations among themselves (this is imp. w.r.t. day-to-day life of the assoc.)
The Articles of Association are rules, which have been made as a matter of establishing the rules of functioning & have been adopted by the 1^st Annual General Meeting of the Association. These are rules to which all members of the association have subscribed & any changes in the Articles of Association must also be approved by the Annual General Meeting. So, every member has a say & a vote in any question pertaining to amending these rules.

There are two classes of members. art. 5 para 1 defines thus as

1. 
   Active members
   
2. 
   Associate members. 1/6^th of all airlines are associate members. Association was created for int’l airlines but domestic carriers are also catered to i.e. feeder services West Jet sends people to Air Canada who flies to Japan. Therefore the second membership class (associate) is for companies like West Jet. The main difference b/t an active & associate member is that the associate member may be present but cannot vote at the conferences. Not discriminatory as the conferences make rules for int’l rule & the associate members don’t carry on int’l routes so why should they vote on tariffs that they themselves will not charge or carry thereon.
   

-Where general matters are decided upon w.r.t. the life of the association at the AGM. art 5 para 2 states that all members can vote at discretion of the executive outside of the conferences. Usually associates are present at the AGM & they usually can vote at the AGM budget as they pay fees & should have a say w.r.t. what happens w/ those funds.

Q? Can non-schedule carriers (charterers) join IATA?

The Board of Governors can terminate the membership of a carrier.

The ultimate authority of the association is vested in General Meeting.

Note: There are three officers who are subject to the approval of the Board of Governors: director-general, corporate secretary, the treasurer of the association.