The Air Transport Association (ATA) is America’s oldest and largest airline trade association. ATA’s 18 member airlines and their affiliates transport more than 90 percent of U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic. U.S. airlines founded the association in 1936 and it is based in Washington, D.C.^[1][2]

ATA advocates on behalf of the airline industry and is involved in many prominent aviation issues. ATA’s senior staff members have testified before Congress on numerous legislative and regulatory matters including aviation safety, airline consumer issues, aviation security, airspace congestion, and aviation and the environment.^[3]

The Air Transport Association supports the Nextgen modernization of the air traffic control system. This system will update the current 1950’s radar based technology with a modern, satellite-based navigation system.^[4] Aviation experts predict that a modern ATC system will save jet fuel and reduce delays by allowing planes to fly shorter routes and by allowing more aircraft to fly safely at any given time. Modernizing the air traffic control system would also reduce the amount of time that airplanes spend waiting on runways and in holding patterns.^[5]

The Air Transport Association has been very involved in environmental issues for the aviation industry on the subject of fuel efficiency.^[6]

Every May and December, the Air Transport Association releases a travel forecast for the upcoming summer or winter holiday season. This forecast is used to predict the number of passengers that will travel during the holidays and to determine trends in flying behavior.^[7][8]

[edit] ATA Spec 100: Manufacturers' Technical Data

The Air Transport Association released the newest version of ATA Spec 100 in 1999. According to the ATA website, this information will not be revised, and has been combined with ATA Spec 2100 to produce the ATA iSpec 2200: Information Standards for Aviation Maintenance manual.

This specification defines a widely-used numbering scheme for aircraft parts and the appearance of printed aircraft maintenance information. The Federal Aviation Administration's JASC (Joint Aircraft System/Component) code table provides a modified version of ATA Spec 100.

ATA Spec 100 contains format and content guidelines for technical manuals written by aviation manufacturers and suppliers and is used by airlines and other segments of the industry in the maintenance of their respective products. This document provides the industry-wide standard for aircraft systems numbering, often referred to as the ATA system or ATA chapter numbers. The format and content guidelines define the data prepared as conventional printed documentation. In 2000, ATA Spec 100 and ATA Spec 2100 were incorporated into ATA iSpec 2200: Information Standards for Aviation Maintenance. ATA Spec 100 and Spec 2100 will not be updated beyond the 1999 revision level.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ATA official website
• JASC Code