Source: ICAO ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano and UK’s Minister for Aviation, Maritime & Security, Robert Courts MP recently exchanged views on the current state of the aviation sector in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both leaders expressed their shared commitment towards the industry’s recovery and ongoing efforts towards increased global mobility. President Sciacchitano also expressed his appreciation for the UK’s new COVID-19 testing strategy for international arrivals, highlighting to the Minister that the initiative is in line with the recommendations issued by the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) concerning medical testing guidelines.

Source: ALTA Despite the challenges and uncertainty that the aviation industry has faced this year, ALTA celebrates the realization of a successful ALTA CCMA & MRO Conference with great milestones and a powerful message: it is possible to resume travels and face-to-face business meetings when safety protocols are taken. The agenda of the fourteenth edition of the ALTA CCMA & MRO Conference featured multiple networking spaces, meetings of ALTA’s Technical & MRO and Technical Purchasing committees, about 750 mini-meetings between airline and supplier representatives, an academic agenda focused on the efficient management of the operation during and after crisis and an exhibition area with table tops from 21 industry companies. Within the different activities, the message on the importance of [...]

Source: ICAO Speaking today to the 7th Meeting of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Global Tourism Crisis Committee, ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu emphasized that a combination of measures, coordinated between governments and industry, will be essential to the re-establishment of public confidence in air travel. “I wish to reaffirm ICAO’s commitment to this re-establishment of public confidence in air travel, and to getting the world travelling again,” Dr. Liu commented. She added that the UN agency for civil aviation was accelerating the sector’s recovery to bring prosperity and sustainability back to Small Island, Landlocked, and the many other countries who rely so fundamentally on the socio-economic dynamics of transport and tourism. Dr. Liu updated the tourism crisis [...]

Source: ACI-LAC As part of the ACI-LAC Annual Assembly that took place last Friday December 4, the assembly adopted the Declaration of Punta Cana. This Declaration recognizes the work of LAC airports implementing the sanitary measures that have allowed a safe restart of operations and urges the States of the region to take standardized and risk-based measures that allow a sustained recovery of the air transport industry. In view of the Covid-19 crisis, which is having an unprecedented impact on the airport industry in our region, ACILAC proposes a clear and constructive positioning to stimulate air traffic growth; achieve economic balance; allow operational efficiency; improve the passenger experience and contribute to the re-establishment of air transport activity, with the following [...]

Source: ICAO Addressing the ICAO Global Symposium on the Implementation of Innovation in Aviation today, ICAO’s leaders highlighted the sector’s high reliance on innovation to address pandemic recovery and future sustainability.  “With each new decade comes new opportunities for innovation, and I anticipate the next ten years will be one of the most exciting and challenging our sector has ever faced,” remarked ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano.  “Innovators can often be surprised by the scale of the global regulatory framework which allows for international aviation, and by the detailed responsibilities they face in having their products and services assessed and integrated into our system.”  ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu underscored the extent to which innovation will be impacting security [...]

Source: ICAO International aviation plays a key role in human affairs.  It lets us discover our world’s wondrous geographic and cultural diversity. It enables us to learn about and benefit from each other. And it connects societies through global travel and trade, advancing access to food, education and healthcare.  These benefits are critical to every country’s attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This year’s observance of International Civil Aviation Day falls as COVID-19 has severed international connections by air, cutting off businesses from clients, keeping tourists from destinations, and disproportionately affecting the vulnerable.  It has also disrupted the operations and finances of airlines and airports worldwide, threatening their capability to assure the global supply of medicines, vaccines, humanitarian aid and [...]

Source: ICAO At a virtual open briefing convened yesterday by the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu underscored the key developments as the two organizations, ICAO and the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), have been working to cooperate more effectively on mitigating terrorist threats to international civil aviation. “2020 has confronted ICAO with the worst global crisis in the history of international aviation”, Dr. Liu noted in her introduction, “and we have been responding quickly and effectively to ensure vital air operations, while bearing in mind the lasting threats of terrorism and making steady progress in aviation security and facilitation. The key recommendation of the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task [...]

Source: ICAO While delivering opening remarks to this year’s ‘Routes Reconnected’ virtual industry event focused on sectoral recovery, ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu underscored how the UN agency has been continuously stressing the pandemic’s threats to the basic sustainability of international flight, keeping related concerns “at the forefront of government and UN system consideration.”   “We know that airlines are still facing dramatically reduced flights and load factors, and that a resurgence of COVID-19 is now taking place across much of the northern hemisphere,” she said. “We know airlines cannot service routes, and keep the world connected, by managing flights without the passengers who make them financially viable. And with our ICAO forecasts now estimating a 60% reduction in [...]

Source: ICAO Efforts to offset emissions from international flights have been kept on track during the current 221st Session of the ICAO Council, with new decisions being adopted by the 36-country body on eligibility units and sustainability certification schemes supporting the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The latest Council endorsements mean that all implementation elements for CORSIA are now complete, and that everything is prepared for the start of its pilot phase in 2021. Details around these latest decisions are available here. ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano remarked on the welcomed developments that “ICAO set out a vision for carbon-neutral growth in international aviation, and this week we have seen that vision bear fruit. The Council’s [...]