Who is IATA? And what is their role?

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is a 70-plus year-old non-governmental organization that plays a major role in air transportation matters including airline relationships, cooperative safety concerns, standardized training, lobbying governmental bodies to accomplish industry priorities and many other related activities.  All the major airlines are IATA members and many smaller ones as well.

According to IATA’s website, they state simple that, “Our mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry.”

In terms of dangerous goods safety, IATA has published the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations for over 60 years and is the most popular DG regulations used throughout the air transportation industry today.  The IATA DGR is based and is 100 percent compliant with the ICAO Technical Instructions for Safe Transportation of Dangerous Goods by Air.