ICAO Symposium Delegates “Pressure International Community to Act on Promoting the Deployment of AAM”

A glob­al Call to Action for the rapid, safe, and sus­tain­able deploy­ment of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) was revealed by the Inter­na­tion­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Orga­ni­za­tion (ICAO), dur­ing its first ever event whol­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the top­ic, reports a press release.

Enti­tled “AAM glob­al har­mon­i­sa­tion and inter­op­er­abil­i­ty: Chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties,” the sym­po­sium brought togeth­er 400 high-lev­el gov­ern­ment offi­cials from 75 coun­tries and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Unit­ed Nations (UN) Sys­tem and Inter­na­tion­al Avi­a­tion Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tions. This ground­break­ing event was held in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da. 

World-lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers, oper­a­tors and oth­er cut­ting-edge inno­va­tors also par­tic­i­pat­ed to inform the devel­op­ment of a glob­al vision and to share best prac­tices and chal­lenges. Many of the lead­ing lights of the AAM indus­try par­tic­i­pat­ed in the event includ­ing JoeBen Bevirt (Joby); Kyle Clark (BETA Tech­nolo­gies); Johann Bor­dais, (Eve Air Mobil­i­ty); Matt Broff­man (Lil­i­um); Oliv­er Rein­hardt (Volo­copter); Conor Yang (EHang); and Bil­ly Nolen (Archer).

The release explains, “ICAO is encour­ag­ing the deploy­ment of these tech­nolo­gies to height­en aviation’s abil­i­ty to act as a cat­a­lyst for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment world­wide. AAM is bring­ing new and inno­v­a­tive capa­bil­i­ties through an increas­ing array of activ­i­ties, includ­ing health care, agri­cul­ture, water sup­ply and mon­i­tor­ing, wild­fire con­trol, pas­sen­ger, mail and car­go trans­porta­tion.” 

Pres­i­dent Sal­va­tore Sci­ac­chi­tano of the ICAO Coun­cil, who offi­cial­ly opened the event, com­ment­ed,  “Advanced air mobil­i­ty will rev­o­lu­tionise the trans­porta­tion of pas­sen­gers, goods and ser­vices by reimag­in­ing aer­i­al mobil­i­ty in urban and region­al con­texts. How­ev­er, real­is­ing this vision requires care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion and plan­ning at a glob­al lev­el.” 

He con­tin­ued, “The com­plex­i­ty of this under­tak­ing is immense, neces­si­tat­ing insights from both core avi­a­tion stake­hold­ers and new entrants. This points to an essen­tial role for ICAO in ensur­ing align­ment around safe­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty in this rapid­ly evolv­ing and expand­ing land­scape.” 

It is in this con­text that a Call to Action has emerged.

Lead­ing Avi­a­tion Speak­ers at the Sym­po­sium

https://www.instagram.com/icao/reel/C8abyPnpbb_

Juan Car­los Salazar, ICAO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al, remarked, “Through our con­cert­ed efforts, we will embrace the numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties that AAM offers, shap­ing a future of avi­a­tion that is more acces­si­ble, effi­cient, and sus­tain­able.”

He added, “AAM has con­sid­er­able impact across var­i­ous areas and dis­ci­plines through­out the avi­a­tion sys­tem. We there­fore need to take an holis­tic approach and pre­pare for its con­ver­gence with con­ven­tion­al avi­a­tion.”

The Call urges coop­er­a­tion among the wide array of stake­hold­ers involved in AAM, includ­ing all lev­els of pub­lic author­i­ty; oper­a­tors, man­u­fac­tur­ers and ser­vice providers across the entire avi­a­tion ecosys­tem; pri­vate, pub­lic, and aca­d­e­m­ic inno­va­tors; and oth­er UN enti­ties. 

Sev­er­al UN Mem­bers have already sup­port­ed coop­er­a­tion with ICAO, aimed at enhanc­ing sup­port for human­i­tar­i­an mis­sions via har­mon­is­ing Unmanned Aer­i­al Sys­tems (AUS). This coop­er­a­tion is essen­tial, as UAS has proven invalu­able to high-impact UN field oper­a­tions, in areas like aid deliv­ery, dis­as­ter response and peace­keep­ing oper­a­tions. 

Nige­ria Com­mits to the ICAO Call to Action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZi075shJ7M

The sym­po­sium will con­tin­ue until Sep­tem­ber 12th, with del­e­gates mak­ing impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to progress on these top­ics. 

Back­ground

The Inter­na­tion­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Organ­i­sa­tion (ICAO) is a spe­cialised agency of the UN and has 193 mem­ber states’ from the avi­a­tion sec­tors and air ser­vices. This year, ICAO is cel­e­brat­ing the 80th anniver­sary of its estab­lish­ment.

Those col­lab­o­rat­ing with the ICAO include the UN Sec­re­tari­at; World Food Pro­gram; UN Habi­tat; Uni­ver­sal Postal Union; Unit­ed Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­i­sa­tion of the Unit­ed Nations; UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees; and the Inter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.icao.int

(Top image: From l to r: Vig­nesh San­thanam, India Lead for Drones and Tomor­row’s Air­space at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum; Chief Ralph Cat­tle­man, Chief of Mon­tana First Nation; ICAO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Juan Car­los Salazar; ICAO Coun­cil Pres­i­dent Sal­va­tore Sci­ac­chi­tano; His Excel­len­cy Abdu­laz­iz Bin Abdul­lah Al Duailej, Pres­i­dent of the GACA of the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia;  His Excel­len­cy Pros­per Higiro, High Com­mis­sion­er of the Repub­lic of Rwan­da in Cana­da and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to ICAO; Dr. Thomas Muy­ombo, Divi­sion Man­ag­er at the Rwan­da Bio­med­ical Cen­ter; and Brie O’Sul­li­van, Pol­i­cy Ana­lyst at the Pub­lic Health Agency of Cana­da)

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