Part I – general 5 The Sources of Int’l Air Law 5 Q? How does customary law relate to int’l law?



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5) Misc. IATA Functions:



The billing & settlement plans b/t the travel agents & the carriers:

It deals w/ the throughput of funds from the agents to the carriers on a monthly basis & involves a very enormous amount of cash. You can imagine the amount of monies that travel agents are taking in every month. These plans do not exist in all of the countries. These funds are forwarded to the Billing & Settlement run by IATA & distributed to the carrier to which it is due & the distribution of these funds is the reason why the remitting funds is done through IATA. Before IATA did it, it was a very complicated thing b/c each travel agent had to calculate which amounts are due to which carrier.


So, now agents provide a magnetic tape & IATA puts all the magnetic tapes together & computes what is due to each other carrier. IATA also takes in the cash & it goes through an IATA bank account & is then redistributed to the carriers.
This is one of the main programs of IATA’s financial services
Program for taxes & charges on travels: This IATA service is trying to negotiate w/ countries on these taxes on travels.
Fuel Trade forum: forum within IATA that invites the big oil companies who produce & sell aircraft fuel at the airport. It deals w/ one issue the price of aircraft fuel
Airport & ground handling services: IATA has a ground handling council in which the carriers are represented on the one hand & the ground handling companies are represented on the other hand. Ground-handling is a field where some carriers perform the functions themselves & sometimes you have professional ground handling companies or the airport itself does the ground handling . IATA has created a ground-handling model agreement which most parties follow & so the legal aspects of ground handling are discussed in the ground handling council, but the agreements are made outside the council b/t the parties in order to avoid anti-trust accusations.
Ground handling means dealing w/ the aircraft on the tarmac side & dealing w/ the passengers & cargo on the terminal side.
Dangerous goods Panel: What type of dangerous goods can be carried & under what circumstances & what must be the packing & labelling requirements. You have various categories.
Live Animal Regulations: Under what conditions, can live animals be carried on board aircraft?
Seminar services: interested parties in the industry are called together to discuss a particular topic usually over a day or two. This was only created in the 1990s
Training services: in a unit that conducts professional training courses for members of the industry. Professionals can keep up to date. Participants are usually airline professionals, such as lawyers. The idea was to keep their knowledge up to date.
Airline/Airport designator service: each airline has a two-letter designator & each airport has a three letter designator & IATA assigns this.
In-flight survey: a service that provides questionnaires for the airlines. The questionnaires will process the questionnaires & the evaluation of the replies & will provide the response to the airline that asked for the questionnaire.
All of these functions deal w/ trade association.


6) Contract Of Carriage



Conditions of Contract: are reproduced in the ticket. There are a set of 11 paragraphs which provide the main skeleton of the rules of contract of carriage b/t the passenger & the carrier. It is a summary of the rules that apply to the contract of carriage.
There is a clause within the conditions of contract that incorporate by reference the conditions of carriage of the carrier & any agreements on fares & rates that are applicable to this transportation.

This clause is legally very imp. This means that the contract is a contract of adhesion.


Conditions of Carriage: are not reproduced into the ticket, but are incorporated into the conditions of K.
When a passenger is denied access to the conditions of carriage, a passenger would have a good case to say that they have not been incorporated into the K.

Q? What types of rules do the conditions of contract contain?


Basically, the conditions of contract are framework conditions.
Para 1 of the conditions of contract contains definitions.
Para 2 of the conditions of contract, gives the carrier a contractual basis to apply Warsaw. This clause will need to be changed once the Montreal Convention is enforced.
Para 3 has the incorporation by reference clause. It incorporates the applicable tariffs & the carrier’s conditions of carriage & related regulations, which are made part hereof.
Para 8: rule that governs the duration of the contract.
Clause relating to time shown in the timetables not being guaranteed has caused considerable controversy. It has been litigated quite a bit. This clause generally means that a carrier can say “I cannot guarantee the times, & therefore if I can get you there in time, fine & if not it is not my problem.” Some passengers have found this completely inequitable. There are number of cases where the passenger has succeeded w/ a claim that if a carrier holds out a schedule to the public, then normally the carrier must make sure that he can keep those times except only if there is force majeure. In Europe, this clause has been struck down by a number of courts. In the U.S., Weber is not aware of any case where the court has struck down this clause. Thus, many airlines in Europe do not use this clause.
Para 10: passenger shall comply w/ government travel requirements. That means in particular documentation, such as passport.
Para 11: no agent or servant or representative of the carrier has the authority to alter or modify or waive any of the provisions of the K. Only the carrier himself can agree to modifications to the K.

7) Conditions of Carriage are much more detailed.




a) Rules Governing The Ticket

The ticket is regarded as prima facie evidence of a contract. It is not the K itself b/c the contract itself consists of the ticket, conditions of contract, the conditions of carriage & the applicable tariffs. All these elements together form the contract. But when a passenger comes w/ a ticket, art. 3 of the conditions of carriage states that the ticket constitutes prima facie evidence of the contract of carriage.


It is prima facie evidence b/c the ticket is a document, which establishes a presumption that the holder of the ticket has concluded a contract of carriage w/ the carrier. It is only prima facie evidence to protect the carrier. It has to do w/ the question as to what point in time is a contract of carriage concluded as a K of carriage is concluded only when the ticket is issued & the passenger has paid the price of the ticket.

b) Rules Governing Inadmissible Passengers




Q? When is a carrier entitled to refuse carriage to a person who presents himself at the gate?





  • Overbooking is most common form of denied booking.

  1. Ano/ case of denied booking is when carrier says you presented yourself at the gate too late.

  2. Ano/ case of denied booking might have to w/ the development of pregnancy.

  3. Ano/ case of denied booking might be to a problem w/ a state of health (alcohol or drug use)

The question in these cases is what is the carrier entitled to do? Can the carrier legally refuse carriage or is the carrier obligated to take the passenger?

Rules w/r/t these matters are laid down in art. 8 of the conditions of carriage. Art. 8 lists cases where exceptionally a carrier is entitled to refuse. This means that as a basic rule a carrier is obligated to carry anyone who does not fall under these refusal exceptions. The exceptions basically cover cases as follows:


a) Where the carrier is under an order to comply w/ any applicable laws or regulations.

b) Where the conduct, age, or mental or physical state of the passenger is such as to require the special assistance of the carrier.





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