Less than eighty hours

In 1873 Jules Verne told the story of Phileas Foggs

record-breaking trip around the world in eighty days. Now,
in the 1990s any tourist can go around the world in a
scheduled time, including stops, of considerably less than
eighty hours. The hero of the trip now, of course, isnt the
passenger but the aeroplane, with its capability of flying at
speeds rivalling that of sound and its ability to soar over
the obstacles of terrain below, over mountains, oceans,
rivers and deserts.
To achieve their potential, however, the airlines must have
effective allies on the ground, thousands of trained men
and women to guide the aircraft, to service it, to watch
over its progress: air traffic controllers to protect it from
collision with other aircraft, meteorologists to inform it of
weather conditions and probabilities, technicians to
operate communications and air navigation equipment,
cartographers, personnel licensing and training experts,
mechanics and flight dispatchers. In an afternoons flight
an airliner can cross the territories of several nations,
nations in which different languages are spoken, in which
different legal codes are used. In all these operations
safety must be paramount; there must be no possibility of
unfamiliarity or misunderstanding. In other words, there
must be international standardization, agreement between
nations in all the technical and economic and legal fields
so that the air can be the high road to carry man and his
goods anywhere and everywhere without fetter and
without halt.

Fifty years
Half a century ago, fifty-two nations met in Chicago and
established the International Civil Aviation Organization to
serve as the medium through which the necessary
international understanding and agreement can be
reached. ICAOs membership now comprises more than
one hundred and eighty sovereign States. Its headquarters are in Montreal and it has regional offices in
Bangkok, Cairo, Dakar, Lima, Mexico City, Nairobi and
Paris. ICAO is one of the specialized agencies of the
United Nations family.
ICAO provides the machinery for the achievement of international co-operation in the air; successful results depend
on the willingness of the nations of the world to work
together to reach agreement. The success which international civil aviation has achieved in the past five
decades is abundant proof that nations can work together
effectively to achieve the public good.

Standardization
One of ICAOs chief activities is standardization, the
establishment of International Standards, Recommended
Practices and Procedures covering the technical fields of
aviation: licensing of personnel, rules of the air, aeronautical meteorology, aeronautical charts, units of
measurement, operation of aircraft, nationality and registration marks, airworthiness, aeronautical telecommunications, air traffic services search and rescue, aircraft
accident investigation, aerodromes, aeronautical information services, aircraft noise and engine emissions,
security and the safe transport of dangerous goods. After
a Standard is adopted it is put into effect by each ICAO
Contracting State in its own territories. As aviation technology continues to develop rapidly, the Standards are
kept under constant review and amended as necessary.
In keeping pace with the rapid development of international civil aviation, ICAO is conscious of the need to
adopt in its specifications modem systems and techniques. In recent years, extensive work has been undertaken by ICAO in the areas of reporting aircraft accident
and incident data, all-weather operations, automation of
air traffic services, the application of computers in
meteorological services, aircraft noise, engine emissions
and the carriage of dangerous goods by air. ICAO has
dealt with the subject of unlawful interference with civil
aviation and with questions regarding aviation and the
environment.

CNS/ATM
Among ICAOs more recent significant achievements has
been the development of a satellite-based system concept
to meet the future communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) needs of civil
aviation.
CNSIATM, formerly known as the future air navigation
systems (FANS) concept, is essentially the application of
todays high technologies in satellites and computers, data
links and advanced flight deck avionics, to cope with
tomorrows growing operational needs. It will make
obsolete much of todays expensive ground-based equipment, which uses line-of-sight technology and has
inherent limitations. It will also produce economies,
efficiencies and greater safety. But it is not these
characteristics that make it a new frontier for aviation. It
will be its impact as an integrated global system with
consequential changes to the way air traffic services are
organized and operated.
The CNSIATM systems concept, which has received the
endorsement of ICAO Member States, is now in its
implementation phase. This major task includes the development of Standards, Recommended Practices and guidance material which will be applied well into the 21st
century.

Regional planning
Not all aviation problems can be dealt with on a worldwide scale and many subjects are considered on a
regional basis. ICAO, therefore, recognizes nine
geographical regions which must be treated individually for
planning the provision of air navigation facilities and
services required on the ground by aircraft flying in these
regions.
In each of the regions, keeping in mind the objective of
producing a seamless global air traffic management
system, careful planning is necessary to produce the
network of air navigation facilities and services upon which
the aeroplanes depend on the aerodromes, the meteorological and communications stations, the navigation aids,
the air traffic control units, the search and rescue bases
- the thousands of facilities to be established and
operated and the services to be rendered. This planning
is done at ICAO regional air navigation meetings, held
from time to time for each of the regions, where the need
for facilities and services is carefully considered and
decided upon. The plan which emerges from a regional
meeting is so designed that, when the States concerned
implement it, it will lead to an integrated, efficient system
for the entire region and contribute to the global system.

When States require assistance in this regard, help is

available through ICAOs seven regional offices - each
one accredited to a group of Contracting States. These
offices have, as their main function, the duty of encouraging, assisting, expediting and following up the implementation of the Air Navigation Plans and maintaining them up
to date. In addition, regional planning and implementation
groups have been established in ICAO regions to assist
the regional offices in keeping the regional plans up to
date and in fostering their implementation.
As financial and technical resources vary widely between
nations, and as air transports demands involve some
complex and costly equipment and well-qualified
personnel for staffing and maintaining the facilities, there
may be uneven implementation of parts of the Air
Navigation Plans. ICAO can assist States through its
technical co-operation activities (described in the following
pages). It has succeeded. also, in a few cases, in
arranging for joint financing - certain facilities in the
North Atlantic are financed by the States whose airlines
make use of them: communication systems for
transmitting messages of interest to aviation, and air
navigation aids and meteorological and air traffic control
facilities in Greenland and Iceland.

Facilitation
The obstacles placed by customs, immigration, public
health and other formalities on the free and unimpeded
passage of passengers and cargo across international

boundaries have been a particularly serious impediment

to air travel. The problem is inherent in the speed of air
travel itself; if, for example, formalities at each end of a
trans-oceanic flight of six hours take up one hour, this
means that the passengers trip time has been increased
by one third, while the same formalities add only about
two per cent to a five-day sea voyage across the same
ocean. For the past two decades ICAO has tried to
persuade its Contracting States to reduce red tape, and
international Standards on facilitation have been adopted
to place an upper limit on what States may demand. In
addition to reducing procedural formalities, ICAOs efforts
are also aimed at providing adequate airport terminal
buildings for passengers and their baggage as well as for
air cargo, with all related facilities and services.
Ec

ics

The Convention on International Civil Aviation requires

that international air transport services be established on
the basis of equality of opportunity and operated soundly
and economically. In fact, ICAOs basic objective is the
development of safe, regular, efficient and economical air
transport. To assist States in planning their air transport
services, ICAO collects and publishes comprehensive
world aviation statistical data, and undertakes extensive
economic studies in line with Resolutions of the ICAO
Assembly and Recommendations of world-wide conferences. ICAO also produces manuals for the guidance of
States in such areas as statistics, air traffic forecasting,
airport and air navigation facility tariffs, the economic
regulation of air transport and the establishment of air
fares and rates. Workshop meetings are conducted in
various regions to provide States with information and
advice on ICAO activities and to exchange pertinent
information and views.

From the beginning, human beings have lived in communities connected to or separated from one another by
surface conditions. Jungles and swamps, mountains,
rivers and deserts have in the past presented almost
insurmountable obstacles to their movement - a
condition which is characteristic even today in so many
developing countries where road, and railway networks are
insufficient or nonexistent. The aeroplanes advantage
here is obvious: it moves along a boundless highway in
the sky and the only actual roadway it needs is that which
is necessary for take-off and landing. By the creation of an
airstrip remote towns and villages can be linked quickly to
the modern world, whereas surface connections could
take years or even generations to build. ICAO therefore
pays special attention to promoting civil aviation in
developing countries. An important instrument in this work

has been the United Nations Development Programme.

So far most of the Organizations work in this area has
been directed toward the development of the ground
services required for civil aviation and, in particular.
toward aerodromes, air traffic control, communications and
meteorological services; in the past few years, and with
the advent of larger and more complex aircraft, requests
for assistance in the more sophisticated fields of aviation,
including airports operations, have been increasing in
number. In response to the alarming incidents in recent
years of acts of unlawful interference against aircraft and
airports, ICAO also provides assistance to States in order
to improve their aviation security facilities and procedures.
Assistance in general has consisted of advising on the
organization of government civil aviation departments and
on the location and operation of facilities and services,
and particularly in the recruitment and administration of
experts, fellowships training and procurement of equipment. Many large civil aviation training centres have been
created or assisted by ICAO in, for example, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan.
Thailand and Tunisia; in most cases these are regional
training centres which take students of many nationalities
and for which the local governments pay a large share of
the costs and take over complete operation of the projects
after a set time. Smaller national training centres have
also been established by ICAO technical co-operation
missions, and nationals of many countries have received
ICAO fellowships for study abroad.

ICAO technical co-operation missions consisting of one or

more technical experts have gone to nearly one hundred
States all over the world. Over 100,000 students have
attended training schools registered with ICAO.

Law
Within the more than one hundred and eighty Contracting
States of ICAO there are many legal philosophies and
many different systems of jurisprudence. There is need,
therefore, for a unifying influence, in certain areas, for the
development of a code of international air law. It is a
function of ICAO to facilitate the adoption of international
air law instruments and to promote their general acceptance. Sd far international air law instruments have been
adopted under the Organization's auspices involving such
varied subjects as the international recognition of property
rights in aircraft, damage done by aircraft to third parties
on the surface, the liability of the air carrier to its passengers, crimes committed on board aircraft, the marking of
plastic explosives for detection and unlawful interference
with civil aviation.

Strategic Action Plan

As aviation moves towards the close of the 20th century,
States and the civil aviation industry are facing unprecedented challenges posed by traffic which continues to
grow but is at times difficult to predict, emerging new
technology, a rapidly changing commercial and regulatory
framework, a growing awareness of the need for protection of the environment, and a requirement for substantial
investment in infrastructure, equipment and human
resources at a time of increasingly competitive pressures
for financial resources.
In October 1992, the ICAO Assembly endorsed a
Strategic Action Plan designed to provide a framework for
the priority activities of the Organization into the next
century within the context of these challenges. Implementation of the Plan is currently well under way. While the
fundamental objectives of the Organization remain as
relevant as they were when they were conceived in
Chicago in 1944, ICAO is focusing the vision of Chicago
to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

How it works
The constitution of ICAO is the Convention on International Civil Aviation, drawn up by a conference in
Chicago in November and December 1944, and to which
each ICAO Contracting State is a party. According to the
terms of the Convention, the Organization is made up of
an Assembly, a Council of limited membership with

various subordinate bodies and a Secretariat. The chief

officers are the President of the Council and the Secretary
General.
The Assembly, composed of representatives from all
Contracting States, is the sovereign body of ICAO. It
meets every three years, reviewing in detail the work of
the Organization and setting policy for the coming years.
It also votes a triennial budget.
The Council, the governing body which is elected by the
Assembly for a three-year term, is composed of 33 States.
The Assembly chooses the Council Member States under
three headings: States of chief importance in air transport,
States which make the largest contribution to the provision
of facilities for air navigation, and States whose designation will ensure that all major areas of the world are
represented. As the governing body, the Council gives
continuing direction to the work of ICAO. It is in the
Council that Standards and Recommended Practices are
adopted and incorporated as Annexes to the Convention
on International Civil Aviation. The Council is assisted by
the Air Navigation Commission (technical matters), the Air
Transport Committee (economic matters), the Committee
on Joint Support of Air Navigation Services and the
Finance Committee.
The Secretariat, headed by a Secretary General, is
divided into five main divisions: the Air Navigation Bureau,
the Air Transport Bureau, the Technical Co-operation
Bureau, the Legal Bureau, and the Bureau of Administration and Services. In order that the work of the Secretariat shall reflect a truly international approach,
professional personnel are recruited on a broad
geographical basis.
ICAO works in close co-operation with other members of
the United Nations family such as the World Meteorological Organization, the International Telecommunication
Union, the Universal Postal Union, the World Health
Organization and the International Maritime Organization.
Non-governmental organizations which also participate in
ICAOs work include the International Air Transport
Association, the Airports Council International, the
International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations,
and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot
Associations.