ICAO Council approves updated CART recovery guidelines

The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Council has approved six new COVID-19 recommendations, and amended two others, as countries continue to address the latest information and cooperate to optimise the role of international air transport in the global pandemic recovery effort and to ensure the speedy resumption of air travel.

The new and amended recommendations and updated guidelines are contained in the High-Level Cover Document and ‘Take-off’ Guidelines that were issued by the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) in June 2020, shortly after the pandemic was identified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Following the emergence of new virus variants, the vaccine rollouts and other innovations to battle COVID-19, the work of CART has targeted specific issues related to the testing and vaccination of passengers as part of a State’s multilayer risk management strategy, with the ultimate objective of restoring public confidence in air travel and getting passengers to fly again. After the 70 per cent decrease in air traffic, international air transport can now see the light at the end of the tunnel thanks also to these new recommendations and guidelines” commented the President of the ICAO Council, Salvatore Sciacchitano. “The Council has also taken into account the latest position of WHO, which specifies that proof of COVID-19 vaccination should not be made a condition for international travel.”

Specific areas relating to the transport of vaccines on commercial aircraft have been newly addressed by CART, requiring attention and action on behalf of pharmaceutical manufacturers, airline and airport operators and national aviation regulators. These include addenda to the ICAO ‘Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air’ to help to better ensure that vaccines are safely handled, transported and accepted to promote their rapid and effective global distribution.

“The CART’s multi-layer risk management strategy has proven to be very helpful. Phase III highlights the interoperability of testing protocols and proof-of-results certification and vaccination for crew and passengers, as well as on appropriate masks for air travel. In addition, guidance on Public Health Corridors has been updated to facilitate the establishment of such arrangements on a bilateral or multilateral level,” commented CART Chairperson, Estanislao Esono Anguesomo.

Air crew were also the focus of new recommendations pertaining to regulatory alleviations and the continuous need of service providers and air transport essential personnel, including pilots and controllers, to maintain the validity of their certificates, licenses and other professional accreditations and approvals.

The ICAO ‘Manual on Testing and Cross-Border Risk Management Measures’, first issued in November 2020, has also been updated during CART Phase III to provide: more detailed guidance on risk management and Public Health Corridors; information on recent scientific evidence regarding COVID-19 testing; and a new section on vaccination and its interdependencies with other tools available to States as part of their multilayer risk management framework. This work benefitted from the close collaboration of ICAO’s Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation and of the WHO and industry groups.

Recognising that the COVID-19 crisis has required countries to confront difficult trade-offs associated with health, economic and social challenges, and that public health still remains the overriding priority, the Council endorsed CART’s call that countries adequately consider aviation’s crucial role in the fight against the pandemic when defining related national policy and spending priorities.

“As these new guidelines emphasise, global supply chains, emergency and humanitarian response and the swift distribution of vaccines to needful populations everywhere rely fundamentally on air transport,” highlighted Sciacchitano. “In light of aviation’s important role as an enabler and multiplier of economic activity, national authorities are being called upon to ensure that the guidance presented here is fully considered by all relevant decision-makers.”

In welcoming the Phase III approval by Council, ICAO’s Secretary General, Dr. Fang Liu, appreciated the recognition by States of the critical importance of air transport to current global priorities, in addition to “the tremendous efforts on behalf of the ICAO Secretariat for coordinating the expert advice and rapid updates that the CART Phase III process has required.”

Liu also drew attention to the continuing role being played by ICAO in support of more effective and aligned regional and international pandemic cooperation in support of the CART objectives, and emphasised that current roadmaps and coordination mechanisms were being amended to adjust to the Phase III changes.