A.
Montreal Convention of 1999 has been designed by ICAO to consolidate all the various conventions, protocols and airline agreements into one single document. It was adopted on 28 May 1999 under the title of ?gConvention for the Unification of certain Rules for International Carriage by Air?h. On 5 Sep ember 2003, with 30 countries having served notice of ratification, the Convention became valid as at 04 Nov mber 2003. Dubbed as MC99, it abolishes liability limits on passenger death and allows law suits at the site of the passenger permanent address. It also allows unconditional paperless passenger tickets and cargo air waybills. As of 3 Feb uary 2010, a total of 95 countries have served notice of ratification. It will require more countries to join the MC99 to have it become a more practical useable document however it is noteworthy that the number of ratifications is coming very close to 100. On Apr l 29, 2004, the European Commission approved the MC99 which gave guidance to all the EU countries to follow the Commission. It resulted in a landslide ratification of important trade partners like Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The 95 countries which had ratified the MC99 are, in order of ratification, Belize, Macedonia, Japan, UAE, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Mexico, Bahrain, Romania, Botswana, Paraguay, Namibia, Barbados, Kenya, Slovenia, Peru, Jordan, Nigeria, Kuwait, Syrian Arab Republic, Greece, Panama, New Zealand, Canada, Cyprus, Tanzania, Portugal, Columbia, Estonia, United States, Cameroon, Saudi-Arabia, Bulgaria, Tonga, Gambia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Benin, Austria, Belgium, De Mar , Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden< United Kingdom, Norway, Malta, Iceland, Monaco, Cape Verde, Mongolia, Albania, Hungary, Qatar, Lithuania, Latvia, Egypt, Lebanon, China, Switzerland, Cuba, Maldives, Vanuatu, Poland, Brazil, Ecuador, Hong Kong (SAR), South Africa, Pakistan, Madagascar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cook Islands, Oman, Singapore, Dominica, Rep. of Korea, El Salvador, Malaysia, Mali, Croatia, Uruguay, Australia, Ukraine, Moldova, Chile, India, Jamaica, Argentina, Montenegro and Serbia. The 95th ratification came from Serbia on 3 Feb uary 2010.
Most of the leading trading countries have ratified the MC99, but it is desired that countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam would become members of the MC99 group. (28 Feb 2010) ?@