Classroom clipper, Vol. II, No. 3, December 1945

              PLANNING FOR WORLD AIR TRANSPORT
MONTREAL, CANADA—Representatives of international air lines at the IATA Meeting included (left to right) Major J. Ronald McCrindle, British Overseas Airways Corporation; Rene Briend, Air France; Torsten Soederquist, A. B. Aerotransport (Sweden) ; H. J. Górecki, Assistant Secretary of IATA; J. C. Cooper of PAA, Chairman of Executive Committee; H. J. Symington of Trans-Canada, President of IATA.
PICAO-IATA
By Arrigo Righi
Readers of aviation publications and aviation columns in the newspapers have been intrigued recently by the addition of PICAO and IATA to the long list of organizations and committees which are designated by groups of capitals. Both these symbols represent international aviation organizations which recently met simultaneously in Montreal, Canada, and which have been formulating the rules under which international air transportation expects to operate as soon as full commercial operations can be established on a world scale.
PICAO stands for “Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization” and is constituted of representatives of Governments. It is therefore an official body and is devising the regulations which the various Governments will agree to use as the basis for minimum standards and requirements needed to obtain the highest possible degree of efficiency and safety for the new means of international communications. This organization results from the decisions taken last year at the Civil Aviation Conference held in Chicago where 54 nations met for preliminary discussions on this very matter of international civil aviation regulation.
IATA stands for “International Air Transport Association” and is made up of representatives of those air line operators who are authorized or certificated to operate in the international field. Airlines which operate only domestically in the various nations may become associate members without vote. This organization is a direct descendant of a similar body organized just before the outbreak of the war in 1939, which with the same initials, IATA, was called “International Air Traffic Association.”
Because of the beginning of hostilities this group was not able to meet. Its objectives were essentially those of the new IATA, i.e., to coordinate the efforts of international air transport companies for their mutual advantage and in the interest of the traveling public; simplifying operating and navigation procedures; standardizing communications and meteorological practices; simplifying all controls on the movement of passengers, cargo and mail that might serve to stultify the most rapid progress of air transportation.
It was not a coincidence that the two organizations met in Montreal at the same time but rather an evidence that the ultimate aims of Government and private enterprise in the interest of orderly and speedy development of international air communications are inextricably bound to-
gether, and, being thus understood, require the closest cooperation.
As President of PICAO the Council of this convention, made up of the representatives of 21 countries, chose Dr. Edward Warner who had originally gone to Montreal as the representative of the United States. (Classroom Clipper, October, 1945.)
The President of IATA for the current year is Mr. H. J. Symington, President of Trans-Canada Air Lines. Assisting him in formulating the basic program for the new association is an Executive Committee representing the leading air transport companies of the world under the Chairmanship of Vice President John C. Cooper, Pan American World Airways. One of the major results of the first meeting was the organization of a series of technical committees to study the fundamental problems of this new industry and the designation of so-called Traffic Conference Areas. The world was divided into nine traffic zones each of which will be guided by its own Traffic Conference and which will control rates, routes and generally systematize the commercial aspects of the airlines’ development.
The PICAO Council will continue in session for some time and will actually have in Montreal fairly extensive offices operating on a permanent basis. The hoped for cooperation between PICAO and IATA was fully achieved during the meetings and is further evidenced by permission granted by the Official organization to the unofficial IATA to have its technical advisors participate in the meetings of the technical sub-committees of PICAO.
UNITED NATIONS AGENCY
FOR EDUCATION FORMED
Real progress in the international relations of education was reported last month from London where educators from all parts of the world met to set the stage for establishment of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The delegations from the United States, Great Britain and France took leading roles in the discussions, and the United States, with thirty-three members in a delegation headed by Archibald MacLei'sh, had the largest group of representatives. Disappointingly, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, did not participate.
It is the aim of those who brought about the London meeting to achieve a permanent organization which will meet annually to deal with problems and issues as they arise—an interesting parallel to developments in international aviation, in which two international organizations, one official in character and one consisting of the air line operators, have been formed. (See column one.)
Benjamin Fine, in one of his dispatches to the New York Times, of which he is Educational Editor, aptly remarked that “The success or failure of this conference will not depend upon what is done at this time. Rather it will depend almost entirely on what is done after the educators go back to their own countries and attempt to put the principles adopted here into practice. That will be the crucial test.”