Arab Air Carriers Organization
From Freepedia
The Arab Air Carriers Organization is a regional association of Arab airlines established in 1965 by the League of Arab States (more commonly known as the Arab League). Its goal is to promote cooperation, quality and safety standards among the Arab airlines. Any carrier based in one of the 22 states which are part of the Arab League may join the organization.
The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) is based in Beirut, Lebanon while the Arab Air Carriers Organization Regional Training Center (AACORTC) is based in Amman, Jordan.
The AACO Regional Training Center was established in 1996 and in 2000 was expanded to have some courses taught in Beirut, Lebanon and Cairo, Egypt. The AACO Regional Training Center offers low-cost training for all AACO members.
Each year, the airline CEOs gather at a general meeting to discuss aviation in the Arab world, progresses that have been made, progresses that need to be made, and any other plans or projects the AACO is working on.
As membership into the AACO is not mandatory for all airlines based in Arab League countries, several Arab airlines, such as Air Mauritanie, the national carrier of Mauritania, are not part of the organization.
The AACO currently consists of 23 members:
- Afriqiyah Airways
- Air Algerie
- Air Arabia
- EgyptAir
- Emirates
- Etihad Airways
- Gulf Air
- Iraqi Airways
- Jordan Aviation
- Kuwait Airways
- Libyan Arab Airlines
- Middle East Airlines
- Oman Air
- Palestinian Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- Sudan Airways
- Syrian Arab Airlines
- Trans Mediterranean Airways
- Tunisair
- Yemenia
One of the AACO's most ambitious plans is to have all members transition from paper tickets to e-tickets by 2007 which is the deadline set by the International Air Transport Association. Meeting this deadline will be quite a challenge for the AACO as most AACO members have yet to begin e-ticketing plans.
The AACO is currently working on a regional airline alliance called Arabesk consisting of EgyptAir, Gulf Air, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air, Yemenia, Tunisair, Royal Jordanian, and Saudi Arabian Airlines. The alliance is expected to be launched early next year. The eight airlines will integrate their schedules with each other to allow convenient connections through each other's networks. Each airline will be linked to more than 500 destinations around the world and each airline will be able to sell tickets on the other airlines and to any destination. The alliance will also involve codeshare agreements as well as frequent flyer program agreements.
The alliance will be very similar to the alliance between Continental, Northwest, and Delta.
The Arab Air Carriers Organization cooperates extensively with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
