The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) (Arabic: الإتحاد العربي للنقل الجوي‎) is a regional airline trade organization 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. AACO is based in Beirut, Lebanon.

The AACO Regional Training Center was established in 1996 in Amman, Jordan. It was expanded in 2000 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, progress that has been made, progress that needs 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 24 members:^[1]

• Afriqiyah Airways
• Air Algérie
• Air Arabia
• Air Cairo
• EgyptAir
• Emirates Airline
• Etihad Airways
• Gulf Air
• Iraqi Airways
• Jordan Aviation
• Kuwait Airways
• Libyan Airlines
• Middle East Airlines
• Oman Air
• Palestinian Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• 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 Airline Alliance consisting of 9 airlines, all members of AACO.^[2] 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.

AACO cooperates extensively with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Arab Air Carriers Organization
• Arab Air Carriers Organization Regional Training Center
• Arab airlines in pursuit of a strong future

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