Terms Used in Air Transport (Aviation Terms)
- Airport
- A place where all aircraft, such as helicopters or passengers and cargo travel to and from. An airport is often located on the outskirts of the city. This is done to reduce the noise in the city.
- Domestic Airport
- This means the terminal or airport is only used for domestic flights in the same country.
- International Airport
- This means the terminal or airport is designated for international flights between different countries.
- Airport Terminal
- This is the place where the traveler completes their procedures when traveling or arriving. There are several services offered there such as ticketing, luggage shipping, checkpoints, etc.
- Cargo Terminal
- This a transportation facility in which quantities of goods or cargo are, without undergoing any manufacturing processes, transferred to other carriers or stored outdoors in order to transfer them to other locations.
- Flight Registration
- When you arrive at the airport, look at the big screen that shows the windows numbers where different airlines (companies) register passengers on flights.
- Timing of take-off
- This indicates when the aircraft is expected to depart or leave the ground. The crew must prepare the aircraft on or near the runway as soon as possible.
- Customs
- The baggage checkpoint upon arrival at the destination airport. After receiving the baggage, arriving passengers will only be able to enter the country of arrival after passing through the customs area.
The Air Transport Regulations and International Conventions
International Organizations in Air Transport
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- Its aims and objectives are to develop the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and foster the planning and development of international air transport to:
- Ensure safe and orderly growth of international civil aviation world-wide,
- Encourage the arts of aircraft design and operation for peaceful purposes,
- Encourage development of airways, airports and air navigation facilities,
- Meet the needs of people for safe, regular, efficient and economical air transport,
- Prevent economic waste caused by unreasonable competition,
- Ensure that the rights of contracting States are fully respected, to avoid discrimination between these States and ensure that every State has a fair opportunity to operate international airlines.
- Promote safety of flights and development of all aspects of international civil aeronautics.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA)
The aims of IATA are clearly set down in its Articles of Association:
- To promote safe, regular and economical air transport for the benefit of the peoples of the world, to foster air commerce and to study the problems connected herewith.
- To provide means for collaboration among air transport enterprises engaged directly or indirectly in international air transport services.
- To co-operate with the International Civil Aviation Organization – ICAO and other international organizations
International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA)
- FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, is a non-governmental, membership-based organization representing freight forwarders in some 150 countries.
- The Airfreight Institute (AFI) has actively pursued its mandate to define, craft and promote the role of the forwarder in international air cargo.
- AFI has developed ongoing relationships with numerous stakeholders in the air transport industry, beginning with FIATA’s own national forwarding Association Members,
- FIATA is a reference source on international policies and regulations governing the freight forwarding and logistics industry.
Conventions that Govern International Air Transport
Warsaw Convention
- This is a convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage of cargo by air.
- Signed at Warsaw, 12th October 1929, the Convention was amended at The Hague on 28th September 1955 and by Montreal Protocol No. 1, 2, or 4 (1975)
- There are five chapters in the Warsaw convention namely;
- Chapter I – Definitions
- Chapter II – Documents of Carriage; Luggage and Passenger Ticket
- Chapter III – Liability of the Carrier
- Chapter IV – Provisions Relating to Combined Carriage
- Chapter V – General and Final Provisions
Hague Protocol
- This was a protocol to amend the Convention for the unification of certain rules relation to international carriage by air signed at Warsaw Convention.
- The Hague Protocol limited the liability that commercial airliners would have to take on in the event of an accident.
Guadalajara Protocol
- This was signed after noting that the Warsaw Convention did not contain particular rules relating to international carriage by air performed by a person who is not a party to the agreement for carriage.
Montreal Convention
- This is a multilateral treaty adopted by a diplomatic meeting of ICAO member states.
- It amended important provisions of the Warsaw Convention’s regime concerning compensation for the victims of air disasters.
- The Convention attempts to re-establish uniformity and predictability of rules relating to the international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo.