The IATA -International Air Transport Association- is an international trade organization of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

At its founding, IATA had 57 members from 31 nations, mostly in Europe and North America. Today it has over 270 members from more than 140 nations in every part of the globe.

The main objective of the organisation is to assist airline companies to achieve lawful competition and uniformity in prices. For fare calculations IATA has divided the world in three regions:

- South and North America.
- Europe, Middle East and Africa. IATA Europe includes the geographical Europe and the countries Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
- Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

To this end, airlines have been granted a special exemption by each of the main regulatory authorities in the world to consult prices with each other through this body. However, the organization has been accused of acting as a cartel, and many low cost carriers are not full IATA members.

For more information please visit www.iata.org