ICAO to convene high-level conference on COVID-19
Travel Biz News —
ICAO aims to convene a high-level conference on COVID- 19 this October , urging active engagement from travel and tourism leaders and stakeholders at the event.
ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu noted that ongoing pandemic impacts on international mobility reveal that the world is “back to 2003 levels in terms of global seat capacity.”
Speaking to the UNWTO Global Tourism Crisis Committee and Commission for the Middle East in Montreal, Dr. Liu said that passenger totals dropped by over 70 per cent in the Middle East and recovery in general is proceeding more slowly than in some other areas of the world.
She identified three key priorities for the global industry sector recently endorsed by the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART).
The first was the establishment of national and regional risk management strategies to gradually open-air routes based on mutually recognized public health measures.
The second area of priority Dr. Liu highlighted was the possibly profound long-term implications for traditional air transport business models and operations post pandemic.
The third key area was the priority for the aviation and tourism sectors to learn together from COVID-19 to improve overall air transport crisis preparedness, enhance economic and environmental sustainability, and enable smarter operations.
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was created by governments in 1944 to support their diplomacy on international air transport matters as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
April 14 , 2021
Photo : ICAO
