Arab Air Carriers Organization

The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO, Arabic: الاتحاد العربي للنقل الجوي‎ Al-Ittiḥād al-`Arabiyy lil-Naql al-Jawwiyy, literally, the "Arab Union for Air Transport"), established in 1965, is a non profit organization with 24 Arab airlines as members. AACO was established 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. AACO is based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Any carrier based in one of the 22 states which are part of the Arab League may join the organization.

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 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 Regional Training Center of AACO (RTC) was established in 1996 with financial support from the European Commission.

Up till the end of 2008, almost 18000 trainees had graduated from about 1184 training courses organized by AACO RTC in Amman and elsewhere, for Arab airlines, CAA’s, non Arab airlines as well as other business related parties.

AACO RTC provides industry courses in aviation related fields, and provides custom-made courses in aviation, travel and tourism related affairs.

AACO RTC partners with training institutions such as IATA, Air Business Academy (formerly EURESAS), Global Air Training UK and Lufthansa Systems.

AACO industry partners provide support through their contribution to the “AACO RTC scholarship program”.

The AACO consists of 24 members:[1]

Membership

and two Partner Airlines:[2]

One of the AACO 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.

The AACO is working on a regional airline alliance called Arabesk Airline Alliance consisting of nine airlines, all members of AACO.[3] Airlines will integrate their schedules with each other to allow 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 with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

AACO locations around the Arab world

Amman courses venue: AACO Regional Training Center (RTC) Ground Floor, Building No. 5, Hussein Al Jeser Street, from Al Thaqafa Street, before Fun Directory store, Shmeisani, Amman – Jordan

Beirut courses venue: Middle East airlines –Training Department – Airport Road Beirut -Lebanon

Cairo courses venue: Inside EgyptAir Training complex facing Novotel Hotel, S-Building, 3rd floor

Tunis courses venue: Tunis Air Training Center which is located near the airport, Tunis - Tunis

References

External links