Australia and New Zealand will be the next two countries to sign up for the IATA/ FIATA Global Air Cargo Programme, following discussions and agreement between the Airfreight Institute of FIATA, and IATA, at the FIATA World Congress (Oct 4-8, Kuala Lumpur). In doing so, Australia will become only the 2nd country to introduce the new programme, agreed to at the FIATA 2016 World Congress last year, following Canada, the pilot country.
The new programme, which will be open to all IATA agents and CASS Associates, will see local IATA Resolutions being removed and a single global programme introduced. More importantly, all final decisions will be made by a joint global governing body: the IFGB (IATA/FIATA Governing Board) comprising senior global airlines and forwarder representatives.
At a local level, there will still be regional joint Airline / Forwarder Councils and in our region this will include Australia, New Zealand and a number of Pacific Island nations. AFIF expects to have 2 of the 6 available seats on the team representing the forwarding side, in this regional council.
The new programme is designed to remove situations where decisions agreed at local current Airline/Forwarder Cargo Executive Councils (IATA CEC), formed under IATA, could be overturned by the global IATA Cargo Agency Conference made up entirely of airline representatives. This is a major step forward for Industry and will lead to equality, once fully implemented.