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4th ICAO-EASA Forum emphasizes safety, security and efficiency targets in face of South East Asian traffic growth

ICAO’s Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu (3rd from left), and ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu (2nd from right) pose for a group photo with Mr. Valter Casimiro Silveira, Brazil’s Minister of State for Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation (3rd from right), during the opening ceremonies of ICAO’s 4th annual World Aviation Forum

ICAO fully supports the increased liberalization of air and freight services globally, given the clear and very positive impacts it helps to achieve in terms of operator profitability, network expansion, and increased tourism, trade and investment more generally.

MONTREAL – ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu highlighted a series of  important air transport priorities to an audience of South East Asian governments last week, focusing on the direct relationships between forecast regional growth, improved ICAO safety, security and operational compliance, and the resulting assurance of rising socio-economic prosperity for local populations.

Dr. Liu’s remarks were delivered to participants at the ICAO-EASA forum on Civil Aviation in South East Asia being held last week from 12-14 September in Bangkok and were complemented during the opening session by the statements delivered by the Minister of Transport of Thailand, Dr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, the Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency, Mr. Patrick Ky, and the International Air Transport Association’s Asia Pacific Regional Vice President, Mr. Conrad Clifford.

“Air traffic is projected to increase among ASEAN States fuelled importantly by progressive liberalization initiatives and the continuing trend toward greater regional economic integration”, Dr. Liu highlighted. “Continued growth points to some tremendous opportunities for aviation and economic stakeholders around the world, but it also poses a unique challenge in terms of assuring that network expansion and traffic increases do not pose any costs in terms of overall sectoral safety performance,” Dr. Liu explained.

ICAO fully supports the increased liberalization of air and freight services globally, given the clear and very positive impacts it helps to achieve in terms of operator profitability, network expansion, and increased tourism, trade and investment more generally. Current projections point to air traffic volumes among ASEAN States tripling to more than 20,000 flights per day by the year 2033.

“These figures, while very positive, also point to some serious challenges for South East Asian governments,” Dr. Liu noted. “Many are already challenged to varying extents in terms of their aviation safety and security oversight operations, and besides the forecast growth we are warning of, they will also be confronted by a sectoral environment which continues to evolve in terms of technologies, operations, and business models, at a very rapid pace.”

In addition to a series of calls to action regarding safety oversight performance levels in the Asia Pacific Region, and more specifically in support of the targets established under the Beijing Declaration which were agreed by the Asia/Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation earlier this year, Dr. Liu also emphasized some acute aviation security concerns in need of further attention.

“We must recognize together, the urgent importance of protecting civil aviation’s critical infrastructure, data, and IT and communications systems in an environment of increasing cyber threats,” she commented. “The 39th Session of the ICAO Assembly called for a coordinated approach among world nations to achieve an acceptable and commensurate cyber resilience capability on a truly global scale, and we cannot lose sight of the fact that this is true for both cybersafety and cybersecurity resilience.”

Dr. Liu concluded by stressing that many States still continue to struggle in complying with international aviation safety standards specifically because they lack sufficient human resources and technical capacities, drawing attention to ICAO’s Next Generation Aviation Professionals (NGAP) programme, and its upcoming Summit in Shenzhen, China this December.

Prior to commencement of the ICAO-EASA forum, Dr. Liu had a meeting with the Minister of Transport of Thailand, Hon. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith and the Director General of Civil Aviation of Thailand, Dr. Chula Sukmanop during which important and current civil aviation matters of mutual interest were discussed. Dr. Liu agreed to enhance the cooperation between ICAO and Thailand and thanked the Minister for Thailand’s continued investment in the regional office’s premise. The Thai Minister reiterated his commitment to their continuous efforts in enhancing Thailand’s safety and security oversight systems.

Key development priorities to Americas and Caribbean participants
Major momentum to increase global public and private sector attention on air transport development priorities, particularly in the Americas, has been achieved at the 4th annual ICAO World Aviation Forum in Fortaleza, Brazil, culminating in the adoption of a Declaration to Promote Connectivity through the Development and Sustainability of Air Transport in the Pan-American Region – Vision 2020-2035.

Through the establishment of a framework commitment to collaborate in the sustainable growth of air transport, this Declaration intends to promote investment for the development of civil aviation throughout the Americas for a 15 year period.

Dr. Aliu set the stage in his opening remarks on Monday, underscoring to its high-level participants that “Aviation connects States to regional and global markets, which in turn enhances consumer benefits and choices. This fosters job creation and provides added stimulus for local tourism and trade.”

According to the latest ICAO long-term traffic forecasts, air traffic volumes for both passengers and freight are poised to more than double by 2035. This represents an incredible amount of raw economic potential, owing to the fact that the economic benefits of aviation will also double in magnitude during the same period, supporting over 100 million jobs and generating more than six trillion dollars in global GDP.

“These substantial impacts emphasize the high degree of priority which should be accorded to aviation development in order to fully capture and realize the potential socio-economic benefits,” The ICAO President remarked. “They also explain why we have focused this year’s IWAF along the theme of Promoting investment for aviation development.”

President Aliu further noted that governments’ local and national master plans and strategies are key to this dynamic, and that they would greatly benefit from being aligned and structured on the basis of the targets and frameworks established in ICAO’s Global Plans for Aviation Safety (GASP), Air Navigation (GANP), and Aviation Security (GASeP).

“By establishing cooperatively-agreed targets and priorities, ICAO’s Global Plans provide us with useful roadmaps which guide our progress in terms of infrastructure and systems modernization, capacity building, aircraft equipage, policy and regulatory adjustments, and many other goals which require both national commitments and international collaboration.”

In her closing remarks to the forum, Secretary General Liu noted that a key takeaway for all present was that the future outlook for aviation remains very positive.

Stressing the forecast annual growth rates for passenger and freight traffic through 2035, projected to come in at 4.3% and 3.9% respectively, Dr. Liu emphasized that “our top priority must be to ensure that air traffic growth is managed safely, securely and efficiently, with due respect for our sector's concrete environmental commitments, and in a manner which fully optimizes all related social and economic benefits.”

She further stressed that States must work to structurally formalize their aviation development plans, consistent with relevant international economic and financial frameworks. States also need to develop gap-analysis to define strategic aviation development targets which are fully aligned with ICAO’s Global Plans, and achieve broad-based consensus among all government and industry partners concerned, and strongly emphasized the need to target a dedicated portion of related capacity building on investment in ‘soft infrastructure’, in addition to technology and innovation.

“National planners must keep one eye very clearly focused on the need for adequate numbers of skilled professionals to be on hand to operate their new facilities and technology, meaning that human resources planning and development must therefore be pursued hand-in-hand in order to optimize returns on all related investments.”

ICAO and the Dominican Republic, within the context of ICAO’s continuing efforts to assist Small Island Developing States (SIDS), made a joint presentation of the preliminary results of a case study quantifying the economic and social benefits of aviation connectivity in that country as a template for other States and regions. It focuses on the positive socio-economic impacts of air transport for the Dominican Republic and seeks to demonstrate more generally the benefits seen by national economies when States choose to make aviation a priority sector within their national development strategies, planning and policies.

Co-Founder & Chief Editor - TravelDailyNews Media Network | Website | + Posts

Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.

She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.

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