Sheehan, W. M.

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International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Southern Methodist University

Journal of Air Law and CommerceVolume 20 | Issue 2 Article 51953International Air Transport Association (IATA)W. M. SheehanFollow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/jalcThis International Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journalof Air Law and Commerce by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu.Recommended CitationW. M. Sheehan, International Air Transport Association (IATA), 20 J. Air L. & Com. 206 (1953)https://scholar.smu.edu/jalc/vol20/iss2/5INTERNATIONAL REVIEWINTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION (IATA)TECHNICAL CONFERENCEI ATA's Sixth Annual Technical Conference, presided over by J. A. Col-lings, Executive Vice-President of Trans World Airlines, took place atPuerto Rico from April 20th to May 2nd. It was attended by 150 personsrepresenting 65 airline and manufacturing companies and governmentagencies from a score of countries.Helicopter SymposiumA notable part of the session was devoted to a Helicopter Symposium,held April 24th through 26th, at which there was a full and frank exchangeof information between IATA airlines, metropolitan helicopter operators,manufacturers, government authorities and other interested groups, includ-ing representatives of the International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO). Mr. J. T. Dyment, Director of Engineering for Trans-Canada AirLines, was Chairman of the Symposium.A particularly valuable contribution was made by those companies andagencies which have already begun helicopter operations - Los AngelesAirways, Helicopter Air Services (Chicago), Okanagan Airways, New YorkAirways, Port of New York Authority, British European Airways andSABENA Belgian Airlines - and by representatives of the Helicopter Com-mittee of the Air Transport Association of America.The full and official record of the Symposium will be published by IATAlater this year. Meanwhile, the following statement of requirements for thefurther development of the helicopter for commercial transport service wasadopted by the participants:"The consensus of opinion of the Helicopter Symposium of the SixthIATA Technical Conference is that transport helicopters will be broughtinto effective commercial operation as rapidly as the development of equip-ment and technique will permit."It appears that suitable transport helicopters may become available inquantity before adequate facilities, techniques and regulations for theiroperation have been fully developed."These developments are dependent upon the broadening and accelerationof the present efforts of government agencies, operators and manufacturers."In view of the importance of the transport helicopter to the transporta-tion systems of the future, and of the mutual dependence of civil and militarydevelopments, it is hoped that military departments and appropriate civilregulatory agencies Will foster, together with civil operators and manu-facturers, a program of prototype testing of helicopters in commercialoperating regimes. The objectives of this program should be the improvementof reliability, the development of operating procedures and techniques, andthe accumulation of handling experience."Since commercial transport helicopter operations will need to be care-fully blended into the nature of the cities they will serve, civic agenciesshould be encouraged to participate in the development program outlinedabove, with the object of providing adequate heliports and facilities; andprotecting suitable alproach paths in built-up areas, by keeping to a mini-mum the number and height of towers and other aerial obstructions and bymarking adequately those obstructions which must be permitted."Since certain of the problems associated with operations over city-centers have a fundamental bearing on the design of future transport heli-INTERNATIONALcopters and heliports, regulatory agencies should be encouraged to acceleratethe determination by flight research of flight safety criteria and optimumapproach, landing and take-off procedures for all-weather operations oftransport helicopters. This program should include the development of in-struments adequate for manual hovering in blind flight."In view of the necessity for operating helicopters under adverse weatherconditions in close proximity to obstacles in order to serve city centers andotherwise to exploit their advantages, appropriate government agenciesshould be urged to accelerate the development of better weather forecasting,navigational facilities and procedures to meet the problems peculiar to thehelicopter, and to institute smoke prevention laws in built-up areas."In view of the lack of extensive transport helicopter operating experi-ence, all regulatory and local governing agencies should be cautioned againstrestrictive requirements, primarily applicable to fixed-wing aircraft, whichmight deter the full exploitation of the unique characteristics of this newvehicle."In order to reduce the cost and increase the availability of transporthelicopters, both for military and commercial operators, governmentagencies, operators and manufacturers should attempt to assimilate as faras possible the design criteria and specifications of civil and militaryhelicopters."Since the usefulness of the helicopter depends upon its convenienceand freedom from delays associated with surface and fixed-wing operation,and since these delays have been most serious in international operations,governments should be urged to take the necessary steps to relax require-ments for unnecessarily involved ticketing and other transport documentsand to make proper arrangements for adequate and expeditious handlingof customs and immigration facilities at heliports."The Helicopter Symposium was unique, not only in the remarkable degreeof collaboration between government officials, operators and manufacturersevinced, but from the point of view of air transport regulation. Internationalregulation of fixed-wing aircraft was preceded by and has been based uponnational regulation. Witness ICAO, which is an international concordancebased upon pre-existing national codes. With helicopters, however, the inter-national regime is being approached more directly: the indicated interna-tional standards and procedures are being devised well before correspondingnational standards and procedures have been established.Terminal Area ProblemsA second major problem dealt with by the Technical Conference wasthat of obtaining the full use of airport traffic handling capacity. The con-clusion drawn by the Technical Committee after considerable discussion wasthat the maximum use of airports can be gained only by proper correlationof airport runways, air navigation and landing aids, airway facilities andtraffic control arrangements in the terminal areas.The discussions also evolved the following four-point formula which mayassist airport traffic planners in their attempts to provide for the greatestpossible capacity:"1. The total capacity of an airport to handle traffic under instrumentflying conditions must be related, not only to the air navigation systemwhich serves it, but equally to the capacity of the airways which feedinto it, its relationship to other airports in the same terminal area, andto such ground facilities as runways, taxiways, run-up and by-passareas and the like.2. It is likely that most airports will reach their maximum capacityto handle traffic when they have two-nonintersecting runways, one forlandings and the other for take-off s. However, if these two are to ac-commodate their maximum potential, they must be planned withJOURNAL OF AIR LAW AND COMMERCEadequate high speed exits, suitable taxiways, run-up and by-pass areasand the like; there must be adequate separation between them; and theterminal area itself must be planned to provide separate in-bound andout-bound traffic lanes and the flexible traffic patterns needed to feedthe instrument landing system at its maximum capacity. Failure toconsider all of these elements may either severely restrict the capacityof the airport, or prove costly when changes must be made.3. The establishment of another airport in a given terminal areamay actually reduce the handling capacity of the area rather thanexpand it, unless its runways and approach patterns are properlyoriented with respect to existing airports and routes.4. To achieve maximum capacity for an airport, air traffic control,airline operations and navigational aid specialists, as well as airportdesign engineers should participate in its planning. It is desirable thatplanning should anticipate an ultimate need, even though actual facili-ties may be installed to meet the immediate demand only as it develops."Performance RequirementsAnother achievement of the Conference was an extensive examinationof operational factors effecting aircraft performance. Based on an exchangeof views between airlines' specialists, governments, manufacturers andresearch establishments, IATA will recommend to its 67 airline membersthat they make a thorough evaluation of the impact on their operations ofthe proposed new "rational" performance requirements code being draftedby the Standing Committee on Performance (SCP) of the InternationalCivil Aviation Organization. It is expected that this code will be put to anICAO meeting of Divisional status in March 1954 and subsequently to theICAO Council for approval.In urging such an evaluation, the Technical Committee, which setstechnical policy for IATA, stressed the desirability of arriving at a newperformance requirements code which will add to the efficiency of air trans-portation without detracting from its present level of safety, but whichwould not sacrifice that efficiency for the sake of theoretical and uneconomicrestrictions on performance.The Committee felt that it was particularly important that performancerequirements be as simple as possible in their framing and application; thatthey be flexible enough to permit local treatment of peculiar local problems;and that they allow operators a certain amount of latitude within the statisti-cal variables expressed in the requirements. While it was recognized thatrequirements would have to be drafted with the very large bulk of operationsin mind, there is still a small, but nevertheless important, range of operationswhere local conditions might make the general rule unnecessarily restrictive,and that it is therefore important to allow the oberator to work out withlocal authorities procedures which will be suited to local circumstances andwhich will provide an equivalent level of safety.The Committee also stressed the danger of premature applicability ofthe new performance standards to turbine-powered aircraft, whose operationhas not yet been extensive enough to provide a sufficient statisticalbackground.The imperative need to develop sufficient meteorological statistics forall international airports was urged by the Committee as a prerequisite tothe incorporation of temperature, humidity and wind accountability inperformance codes. It was pointed out that, while ICAO requirements callfor the gathering of weather data, a greater degree of compliance by nationalgovernments with the reporting specifications is urgently necessary forpresent operational purposes, as well as for those of SCP. More data onrunway wind statistics and wind variability, as well as more exact standard-ized wind speed forecasts were also felt to be necessary.INTERNATIONALSINGLE AGENCY AGREEMENT SCHEMEOf particular interest from a legal point of view is IATA's unheralded,but strikingly successful application of the Single Agency Contract Schemebetween IATA and its approved passenger and cargo sales agents. Author-ized by the Buenos Aires Traffic Conferences in May 1952, and put intomotion at the beginning of this year, the Scheme has now been in operationfor more than six months.Previously, each IATA member has had to execute and maintain aseparate lengthy contract with each of the many agents who sold trans-portation for it. The new Scheme is for IATA to make and maintain acontract with each agent on behalf of all those members wishing to retainhim. Thus, IATA executes and sends out the standard form of agreementto each IATA approved agent. The latter signs and returns it to IATA. TheConference Secretary then notifies members which approved agents haveexecuted and returned the agreements. Thereupon each member that wishesto appoint an IATA approved agent as its own agent does so by sending asimple Certificate of Appointment to the agent with copy to the ConferenceSecretary. Thus on the basis of a single agreement executed by IATA andthe agent, the latter enters into contractual relationship with as many IATAmembers as may wish to appoint him.In accordance with the authority given by the Traffic Conferences atBuenos Aires, the Conference Secretaries signed and circulated last Fallmore than 7,000 agreements to agents on the IATA approved list. Despitelegal uncertainties in several countries, with few exceptions agreements havebeen signed and returned to IATA by the agents.It is expected that the new Scheme will effect substantial savings oftime, trouble and expense to IATA members, as well as to thousands ofagents. For example, when it was necessary recently to effect a minoramendment to the IATA standard form of agreement, this was accomplishedby the three Conference Secretaries sending out approximately 7,000 noticesand receiving approximately the same number of replies from agents. Underthe previous system each IATA member would have been obliged to com-municate with each of its appointed agents for an industry total of wellover 100,000 separate communications.A similar scheme has been put into force by members of the Air TrafficConference of America with its agents. But it is believed that IATA's use ofthe single contract principle is quite unique in respect to its scope of applica-tion, number of parties and the multitude of legal jurisdictions concerned.NINTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGThe Ninth Annual General Meeting of IATA will be held October 5th-9that Montreal. Trans-Canada Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines will act asHost Airlines. At the commencement of the meeting, Mr. Gordon R.McGregor, President of Trans-Canada Airlines, will succeed Dr. W. Berch-told, President of Swissair, as President of the International Air TransportAssociation.TRAFFIC CONFERENCESThe Traffic Conferences have been convened for their usual worldwideComposite Session at Honolulu on November 2nd. Unlike the previous annualTraffic Conference meeting at Cannes in November 1952, which lasted 37days, it is contemplated that this session will be able to complete its businessin three weeks.W. M. SHEEHAN** Legal Drafting Officer, International Air Transport Association.

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International Air Transport Association (IATA)

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