Call for Urgent Action for Aviation and Tourism

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) joined the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for a virtual teleconference on COVID-19.

Image credit: ICAO

The meeting was introduced with priorities and highlightsbeing outlined by Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Secretary General. This wasfollowed by remarks from senior officials from the other agenciesparticipating, including ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu and IMO SecretaryGeneral Kitack Lim.

A key conclusion of the ministers and senior UN officialspresent was that calls would need to be made urgently to governments to takeimmediate actions, including through financial aid packages and incentives, tohelp the aviation and tourism sectors withstand current COVID-19 risks andimpacts.

“We have confronted economic sustainability challenges inthe past in terms of various financial crises, the 9/11 attacks, theEyjafjallajökull volcano eruption, and indeed with earlier pandemics, but theCOVID-19 consequences the air transport sector is confronted with today aretruly unprecedented,” Dr. Liu commented.

She also stressed that commercial operators had “registeredsignificant losses not only in specific areas of COVID-19 impact, but indeedglobally given the realities of network interconnectivity and preventativeactions now being carried to limit international mobility.”

Dr. Liu also highlighted that while the consequences ofthese impacts are being felt in key economic sectors such as tourism, cascadingimpacts were being felt throughout civil societies as other types of suppliesand goods which we rely on in our daily lives begin to vanish from shelves asmore and more international trade is curtailed.

“All of these effects deplete the society-widesustainability benefits which air transport is relied on for, especially indeveloping States, and without the related revenues continuing to flow intoState coffers, direct government action on the UN SDGs may likely becomecurtailed,” she noted.

Dr. Liu also summarized for the UN colleagues present thesignificant work which ICAO has been undertaking with Member States, otherinternational organizations, and aviation industry partners.

“ICAO urges our Member States to implement public healthrelated regulations and guidance. We also have a leading role to play in theICAO Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of PublicHealth Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) programme,” she commented.

After outlining the specific actions ICAO had undertakensince the onset of the international impacts of COVID-19, Dr. Liu concluded byhighlighting that “without reliable, affordable air services, and harmonizedaviation and tourism policies, the benefits of aviation and tourism simplycannot be realized. I wish to be very clear how much ICAO recognizes theimportance of these dynamics to global sustainability objectives.”

The meeting also heard from the Chairs of various UNWTORegional Commisions, featured special interventions from the Ministers ofTourism for Spain and Saudi Arabia, and welcomed responses from variousindustry bodies including Airports Council International (ACI) and theInternational Air Transport Association (IATA).

All industry stakeholders were unanimous in their perceptionthat global connectivity by air is facing dire and possibly critical risks dueto the threats to the economic sustainability of operators being posed byCOVID-19 response protocols worldwide.

The UN agencies present agreed that a wide-rangingcoordination body be established to begin addressing the public-privateresponse required to address these significant and sector-threateningconsequences.