The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has welcomed the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council’s approval of the latest recommendations from its aviation recovery task force (CART).
The key outputs include recommendations for temporary liberalisation of cargo flights, considering priority vaccination of air crew, increased cooperation among governments to implement CART recommendations and guidance.
Besides a new mechanism for reporting extended regulatory alleviations, they also include updated or new guidance for testing certificates, Covid-19 risk management including vaccination and its interdependencies, and dangerous goods guidelines for the carriage of cargo on passenger aircraft used in freighter operations.
“This is a major piece of work by states and aviation stakeholders under the leadership of ICAO and with the full support of the industry,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
“These recommendations, guidelines and tools are only meaningful if they are adopted universally. It is crucial that states implement this guidance, particularly as they plan for the restart of international aviation when borders are able to open,” he said.
“As we have said many times, it was easy to shut down aviation with individual decisions. Restarting and maintaining operations to deliver economically and socially vital connectivity can only happen if all parties work together. The CART recommendations are the building blocks for that cooperation,” said de Juniac.
One of the most important recommendations from this work is the call for national authorities to ensure that CART delivers results in national decision-making.
“We all know how important aviation is to the economy. And the harmonised implementation of these guidelines is what will put people back in jobs by getting the industry moving again,” said de Juniac.
As ICAO tracks implementation, it is also critical to track the impact of the latest developments in Covid-19 on risk management frameworks, especially as the industry learns more about the effectiveness of vaccines against transmission, he added.
