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UN aviation agency celebrating 80th anniversary in Chicago

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Transportation Secretary Buttigieg says agency's work

critical

but unglamorous

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Delegates hold special session to discuss climate, safety

issues

By David Shepardson and Allison Lampert

CHICAGO/MONTREAL, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A global blueprint

for modern air travel struck 80 years ago this week faces fresh

tests managing change and rising air traffic in the developing

world, a senior official at the UN's aviation agency told

Reuters.

On Thursday, the UN's International Civil Aviation

Organization (ICAO) is bringing together regulators and industry

executives including from Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus in a

special session at the Chicago site marking its birthplace.

With no policing powers, ICAO uses consensus to set

standards on everything from runways to seat belts. The agency

was created after the United States invited more than 50 allies

to agree in 1944 to a common air navigation system.

The signing of the Convention on International Civil

Aviation on Dec. 7, 1944, underpinned support for the creation

of ICAO and its reliance on multilateralism to manage the skies.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on

Wednesday at a reception at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, formerly

the Stevens Hotel where the convention was adopted, that ICAO

helped ensure air travel as the safest mode of transportation.

"The safety record is a marvel of collective action,

responsible choices, policy and regulation and standards that

sometimes is as unglamorous as it gets, but it makes everything

else possible," Buttigieg said.

"As long as humanity has taken to the skies there has been a

need for cooperation, consistency and communication."

That post-war cooperation is now being tested by a rise in

populism, even as ICAO confronts challenges unforeseen in 1944,

like public concern over emissions from global aviation.

"We are going to celebrate the past of course, but we want

to take this opportunity, this celebration to look forward,"

said ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano in an

interview this week at the agency's Montreal headquarters.

As ICAO moves toward its next triennial assembly in 2025,

Sciacchitano said the organization is working with investors and

fuel producers to support higher volumes of sustainable aviation

fuel, a scarce but key resource to lower emissions from flights.

In 2022, ICAO set a long-term goal for net-zero aviation

emissions by 2050.

Similarly, management of a limited supply of airspace as

traffic swells from Asia and the Middle East, will be a priority

over the next 25 years, Sciacchitano also said. Passenger growth

for Asia Pacific will be approximately double that of Europe

over the next five years, he said.

The agency has also faced criticism for its slow pace of

decision-making, which can take years, often trailing industry

advances even as environmental groups have said ICAO has failed

to set ambitious enough climate targets.

In recent years, ICAO has faced tests from some of its own

member countries, with resolutions at the agency's last assembly

in 2022 directed at three countries - Russia, Belarus and North

Korea - for violating articles of the Chicago Convention.

In a rare rebuke to a member state, Russia lost its council

seat in 2022 over its invasion of Ukraine and for violating

Ukraine's sovereign airspace and bombing airports.

Despite such challenges, Sciacchitano said ICAO is still

relevant and able to accomplish its goals through compromise.

"There are different perspectives for sure, but this doesn't

mean that there is not a strong commitment to work together to

find solutions."