The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

If you have worked at least for one day in the company, you would have heard the word ICAO at least once.

The ICAO is the international agency that deals with aviation (Similar to the WHO which deals internationally on matters connected with health).

On 7^th December 1944, 52 countries gathered in Chicago, USA, to sign what is called the “Convention on Civil Aviation”. By then, many countries had set up their own aviation industry and were into air transport. There was a lot of cross border air traffic as well as a marked increase in trans-Atlantic air traffic due to flight operations between Europe and the American continent. But there was no proper control over the air traffic and major airports often had a problem when a large number of planes arrived in and around the same time and attempted to land. In addition, anybody from any country could take to the air from anywhere they like and land in any country and that country had no way of knowing who is coming in advance. For a while it seemed that the world had opened up limitlessly through the sky. The need for countries to coordinate and regulate air transport was strongly felt. This was the reason that lead to the Chicago convention.

Although the Chicago convention was signed in 1944, it was ratified and put into effect only on 4^th April 1947. On the same day, the “International Civil Aviation Organization” was formed.

The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations Organization (UNO) which gives it the mandate to operate internationally.

The ICAO Logo. Note its resemblance to the UN Logo which signifies its status as a specialized agency of the UNO

The main body of the ICAO is the ICAO assembly which includes all the contracting states. Presently there are 90 members. Sri Lanka is also a signatory to the Chicago Convention and therefore is a member state of the ICAO.

An ICAO Assembly session in progress. The Assembly meets every 3 years.

The ICAO is governed by a council consisting of 36 states elected by the assembly. The council runs the affairs of the ICAO through a secretariat appointed by the council. The secretariat has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada.

The ICAO Headquarters is located in Montréal, Quebec, Canada

The Chicago convention is an elaborate legal document. It has 94 articles and 19 Annexes. These annexes contain “Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS)” on various aspects of civil aviation and these are in fact the international standards that we talked about earlier. For example, Annex 8 deals with "Airworthiness of Aircraft", Annex 14 deals with "Aerodromes" and Annex 10 deals with "Aeronautical Telecommunications".