Source: ICAO Separate developments last week marked significant progress toward the global implementation of ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), despite the challenges of COVID-19.   Rwanda and Kazakhstan became the latest countries to announce their participation in the pilot phase of CORSIA, which is voluntary. Mr. Silas Udahemuka and Mr. Peter Griffiths, respectively the Directors General of the Civil Aviation Authorities of Rwanda and Kazakhstan, informed ICAO of these developments through letters to ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. These commitments represent an important contribution towards the momentum underpinning CORSIA. As a result, 85 States representing 76.76% of international aviation activities are now committed to the voluntary phase.   In parallel, ICAO has officially launched [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO completed its third regional roll-out session today to national heads of civil aviation, as it continues to progress global COVID-19 aviation alignment through its Governing Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) recommendations and guidelines.   Today’s webinar, which was open to the public and hosted by ICAO’s South American (SAM) Regional Office, comes closely after the conclusion of similar regional events hosted by the UN aviation agency’s North American and Caribbean (NACC) and European and North Atlantic (EURNAT) Regional Offices. All three webinars gathered together the Directors General of Civil Aviation from their respective accredited States and achieved progress on numerous fronts.   When introducing the CART guidelines to the national aviation heads, ICAO Secretary General, Dr. [...]

Source: ICAO Montréal, 1 June 2020 – The ICAO Council adopted a new report and recommendations today aimed at restarting the international air transport system and aligning its global recovery. The COVID-19 report and guidelines were produced by the Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART). They were developed through broad-based consultations with countries and regional organizations, and with important advice from the World Health Organization and key aviation industry groups including the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airports Council International (ACI World), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), and the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA). “The world looked to the ICAO Council to provide the high-level guidance which governments and industry needed to begin restarting international [...]

Source: ALTA Over the past weeks, Airports Council International (ACI-LAC) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have come together to secure alignment between airlines and airports, with the aim of jointly engaging and supporting institutional stakeholders in the challenging endeavor of restarting the aviation industry. The proposed layered approach of measures across the entire passenger journey aims to minimize the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at airports and onboard aircraft, and to prevent aviation becoming a meaningful source of international re-infection. Such measures should be globally consistent and subject to continued review, improvement, and removal when no longer required, to ensure an even recovery. The aviation industry faces the biggest challenge in its history. International aviation is effectively shut [...]

Source: UNWTO The world is slowly opening up again, new research from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) indicates, with destinations cautiously easing travel restrictions introduced in response to COVID-19. As the United Nations specialized agency releases its Global Guidelines for Reopening Tourism, signalling a transition into gearing up for stronger and better recovery, 3% of all global destinations have now taken steps to ease travel restrictions. UNWTO has been monitoring the global response to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. The fourth edition of its COVID-19 Related Travel Restrictions: A Global Review for Tourism report, released today, again looked at the measures of 217 destinations worldwide as of 18 May 2020. The research shows that 7 destinations have eased [...]

Source: IATA International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have called on governments to ensure any new measures introduced for airports and airlines in the wake of COVID-19 are supported by scientific evidence and are consistent across the world. The aviation sector has been brought to a standstill and a balanced and effective restart and recovery depends on collaboration among the key participants in the global aviation ecosystem. ACI and IATA have jointly issued a paper laying out a pathway for restarting the aviation industry - Safely Restarting Aviation - ACI and IATA Joint Approach. Airlines and airports have cooperated to build a roadmap for resuming operations which reassures the travelling public that health and safety remain [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed details of its proposed temporary layered approach to biosecurity for re-starting passenger flights amid the COVID-19 crisis. IATA has published Biosecurity for Air Transport: A Roadmap for Restarting Aviation (pdf) which outlines IATA’s proposal for a layering of temporary biosecurity measures. The Roadmap aims to provide the confidence that governments will need to enable the re-opening of borders to passenger travel; and the confidence that travelers will need to return to flying. “There is no single measure that will reduce risk and enable a safe re-start of flying. But a layering measures that are globally implemented and mutually recognized by governments can achieve the needed outcome. This is the greatest crisis that [...]

  Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced a commitment by the airline CEOs on its Board of Governors to five principles for re-connecting the world by air transport. These principles are: Aviation will always put safety and security first: Airlines commit to work with our partners in governments, institutions and across the industry to:   Implement a science-based biosecurity regime that will keep our passengers and crew safe while enabling efficient operations. Ensure that aviation is not a meaningful source for the spread of communicable diseases, including COVID-19. Aviation will respond flexibly as the crisis and science evolve: Airlines commit to work with our partners in governments, institutions and across the industry to: Utilize new science and technology [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO is encouraging the establishment of special COVID-19-free Public Health Corridors (PHCs) to address the “extensive and varied” country-to-country border restrictions now in place due to national pandemic measures.   In an attachment and appendix to its latest bulletin, issued under the authority of ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu, the UN aviation agency underscored to national governments that current disruptions to international air movements have “severely disrupted the global aviation network, including the transport of essential items such as medical supplies and food.”   To keep supply lines open, and access to needed supplies better assured, the ICAO Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) has recommended that PHCs [...]

Source: US FAA   U.S. airlines carried 51% fewer scheduled service passengers in March 2020 than in March 2019, according to preliminary data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by 24 airlines that carry 99% of the passengers, dropping to the lowest level of air travel in more than two decades.   The 51% decline in the number of passengers from March 2019 was the largest year-to-year decrease on record.   The airlines carried slightly more total, domestic and international passengers in March 2020 than in September 2001, the month of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.   March 2020 passenger numbers (24 carriers reporting): Total: 7 million passengers, down 51% from March 2019 (79.9M) Domestic: 34.1 million passengers, down [...]