JOURNAL

ICAO 39 TH ASSEMBLY
Michael Gill, Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group
(ATAG), said that CORSIA “will successfully balance the growth in air
transport, and all of the economic and social connectivity benefits
that it brings, with the need to address CO 2 emissions from the sector.”
Beyond the historic agreement on CORSIA, additionally significant
and far-reaching 39 th Assembly progress was achieved across
all of ICAO’s five Strategic Objectives for Aviation Safety,
Air Navigation Capacity and Efficiency, Aviation Security
and Facilitation, the Economic Development of Air Transport,
and Environmental Protection.
ICAO Member States delivered very clear endorsements for
the targets and approaches being pursued globally under ICAO’s
comprehensive strategic plans for aviation safety and air navigation
capacity and efficiency, and supported the need for it to provide
similar high-level leadership at the global level in the form of two
new Global Plans to be developed for aviation security and air
transport economic development.
The new Global Aviation Security Plan in particular was requested
to be prepared on a fast-track basis.
States also showed their clear appreciation and support for ICAO’s
recent reprioritization on assistance and capacity-building, as
coordinated under its No Country Left Behind strategy, and as
aided by more intensive global partnership development and
resource mobilization.
Other decisions of note included agreement to amend the
Chicago Convention to increase the number of States on the
Delegates at the 39 th ICAO Assembly
ICAO Council and its supporting body of technical experts,
the ICAO Air Navigation Commission.
SIGNIFICANT LOGISTICAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES
During Assembly Sessions, ICAO’s complete work programme in the
technical, economic, legal and technical cooperation fields is reviewed
in detail. Assembly outcomes are then provided to the other bodies
of ICAO and to its Member States to guide their continuing and
future work.
The 39 th Assembly benefitted from the participation of more than
2,200 delegates from 185 Member States, non-Member States and
56 observer delegations – the highest number ever hosted – and
achieved 30% more work than at any previous event of this kind.
More on the monumental effort undertaken by the ICAO Secretariat
to make the event efficient for member States can be found in the
article on page 25.
With the 39 th Assembly Resolutions now in hand, and its budget and
priorities confirmed for its next triennium, ICAO’s attention will shortly
begin focusing on the agency’s 40 th Session of the Assembly, which
will coincidentally take place during its 75th Anniversary year in 2019.
Details of Assembly discussions and decisions for each Strategic
Objective for global aviation are described in the following pages.
“Aviation can now claim
its ‘Paris moment'. Air
transport is now the world's
first major industry sector
to adopt a global approach
to international emissions
reduction.”
– Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu,
ICAO Council President
ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu (centre) and ICAO Secretary
General Dr. Fang Liu (right) with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the
United Nations.
8 ICAO JOURNAL – ISSUE 4 2016