IATA history

By:

James Knight

James is the Editor of Education for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the… read more.

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

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IATA was founded in Havana, Cuba, in April 1945. It is the prime vehicle for inter-airline cooperation in promoting safe, reliable, secure and economical air services – for the benefit of the world’s consumers. The international scheduled air transport industry is more than 100 times larger than it was in 1945. Few industries can match the dynamism of that growth, which would have been much less spectacular without the standards, practices and procedures developed within IATA. At its founding, IATA had 57 members from 31 nations, mostly in Europe and North America. Today it has some265 members from 117 nations in every part of the globe. The modern IATA 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.

Reference: The Penguin Business Dictionary, 3rd edt.