You became President of the ICAO Council in January 2020 and were re-elected for a second term in January 2023. How are your priorities different this time around?
ICAO’s mission is and will continue to be to support the development of a safe, secure, sustainable and regular international air transport system through standard setting, State implementation oversight, assistance and implementation support. When I first took office in January 2020, I stressed that the aviation sector was evolving and becoming more complex, as evidenced by rapidly accelerating technological innovation and increased social demands. My priorities were, and they have not changed from those that I presented when I first took service - to guide ICAO to adapt, modernize, and evolve to face the challenges in the coming years while continuing to prioritize the safe, secure, sustainable and regular development of international aviation.
Although ICAO was established in 1944, you have stated that the agency is now undergoing a ‘process of modernization.’ In practice, what exactly does this entail?
My agenda for modernization includes enhancing the organization’s internal working environment, its governance process, the Council’s working methods, innovation and relations with industry, and ensuring implementation support so that ICAO’s standards are implemented in a harmonized manner on a global scale so that no country is left behind. For example, achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require reliable and affordable support and capacity building for ICAO Member States. ICAO is fully committed to supporting and promoting decarbonization efforts across all of its Member States to achieve this ambitious goal.
Modernization is critical to ensuring that ICAO can effectively address the plethora of challenges and opportunities facing air transport in the coming years. A streamlined and more focused workload, prioritization of objectives, and greater transparency and accessibility of the Council to the public are all strategies that can lead us to a more modern ICAO. These strategies complement the Transformational Objective ICAO is currently pursuing which involves multiple programmes and projects organized under three core Transformation Pillars – People & Culture Transformation, Digital Transformation, and Operational Transformation. Currently, there are more than 40 projects actively contributing to the realization of the Transformational Objective.
Your Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) offered guidelines for countries to reopen post-pandemic, but government ministers haven’t always cooperated. How do you plan to maintain consistent global standards during future times of crisis?
The Council Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) provided States and industry operators with sound, practical guidance necessary to restart the international air transport sector and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 on a coordinated, global basis. It also offered a built-in flexibility which was critical to the process. No country experienced exactly the same COVID-19 impacts as its neighbor, and each had local resources and other considerations to assess in the course of designing effective local response and recovery measures.
Recognizing these differentiating circumstances, the CART guidelines provided States with a global set of reference points as they developed and refined the response measures according to their best interests and needs. I wouldn’t say that government ministers didn’t always cooperate. I would rather say that governments also took into consideration other perspectives in adopting their measures in a framework of the complexity of the multiplicity of actors and needs (health authorities, internal public perceptions, preparedness to introduce vaccines, etc).
Of ICAO’s 193 member States, which nations are emerging as contenders disrupting the competitive landscape of the aviation industry?
States are not emerging as contenders disrupting the competitive landscape of the aviation industry. On the contrary, States cooperate in particular through ICAO, to support air transport development in a competitive landscape. Let’s recall that since 1944, when the Chicago Convention was signed, the aviation sector changed dramatically. Airlines and airports are largely privatized and in many States also the Air Navigation Service providers are privatized or corporatized. Similar are the aircraft manufacturers. Consequently, States and the aviation industry have different responsibilities. The former to adopt policies in support of aviation, the latter to compete in a well-regulated market.
Geopolitical conflicts can severely impact operations over or near conflict zones. Currently, what are the most concerning conflicts and tensions threatening operations in the aviation industry?
The importance to ICAO of addressing the risks that conflict zones pose to civil aviation cannot be overstated. In today’s geopolitical climate, be it the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, war in Ukraine and ongoing conflicts in Africa, ICAO is very much engaged in this critical safety issue. ICAO maintains comprehensive standards and guidance on conflict zone risk assessments. Following the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 on 17 July 2014, ICAO issued guidance to States for civil aircraft operations over or near conflict zones so that States could better perform their risk assessment. The Ukraine conflict represents one of the greatest challenges ever to confront modern international order, not to mention the foundation of global peace and consensus on which that order is based. It serves as a lesson for all of us that the incredible benefits and progress realized through international frameworks and agreements can be quite fragile and that our multilateral systems and objectives must be continuously renewed and reinforced.
Production of SAF is touted as the definitive solution to reducing CO2 emissions in aviation. How much investment is required to meet sustainability targets and ensure its adoption is sufficiently widespread?
We must urgently scale up the development and deployment of sustainable, lower-carbon, and other cleaner energies to meet the sustainability expectations of both the world and our own aviation stakeholders.
The third ICAO Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels last November delivered a global framework for ramping up the production and deployment of clean energy. Clean aviation energy holds the promise of delivering over half of the emissions reductions States need to achieve their net zero ambitions, and while SAF is not alone the definitive solution, it is crucial to reducing aviation’s carbon emissions.
We estimate that approximately 55% carbon emissions reduction will be achieved in 2050 thanks to the use of SAF and Low Carbon Aviation Fuels (LCAF). Investment in innovation, new technologies and operational improvements will also greatly contribute to decarbonization. To unleash the full potential of these fuels and other innovations, ICAO is fostering international partnerships and cooperation. We are actively engaging with Member States, industry stakeholders and financial institutions to this end. The Finvest Hub initiative will be an important project establishing a platform to facilitate investment partnerships, particularly in the interest of countries and regions that have not yet begun SAF production. A capital investment of $3.2 trillion will be needed for SAF development before 2050.
