ICAO Secretary General In Paris To 'Move The Needle' On Key Civil Aviation Issues

PARIS—The ICAO Secretary General will hold high-level discussions during the Paris Air Show with industry and civil aviation authorities on topics including safety, security and sustainability.

Juan Carlos Salazar told ATW in an interview this week on the Window Seat Podcast that he expected to be in Paris and his focus would be on agreeing “concrete action plans.” The interview was conducted two days before the crash of Air India Flight AI 171.

Salazar, a Colombian who is serving his second consecutive term as the head of the United Nations’ organization, said talks would be aimed at how industry and regulators can move the needle from ideas to concrete action plans on key air transport initiatives.

“How we can further work on safety and security, which is a core objective for everyone who works in this sector. How we move the needle towards sustainability and make real the progress that we expect on the vision, for example, that we have for cleaner energy, in which we want to reduce CO2 emissions by 5% by 2030,” Salazar said.

“It’s a very concrete aspiration and a huge challenge that we have to make aviation more sustainable. And how can we work with industry and with government stakeholders on practical support programs?”

Salazar picked out the ICAO Finvest Hub initiative for facilitating access to financing for cleaner energy, and also the need for government and industry assistance in capacity building and training programs for airlines. It was essential, he said, to have support so that programs like the ICAO CORSIA carbon offsetting and reduction program can be accelerated.

Salazar also mentioned the importance of ICAO’s Safer Skies initiative and Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, which sets standards for the world’s civil aviation system’s accident investigations and the sharing of lessons learned.

“One of the biggest, strongest, more powerful tools that we have is the lessons that we draw from the tragedies that occur to the system. So that I cannot highlight enough the importance of that work also around the annexes that are prepared by ICAO,” Salazar said.