ICAO seeks to remove incompatibilities in access to the market and promote the standardization of provisions

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced that in recent years there has been an increase in interest in multilateralism as a platform to regulate international air transport between States.

“To date, the system has created a web of complex regulatory regimes with close to three thousand air services agreements.”

In an interview with A21, Melvin Cintron, ICAO regional director for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, assured that the international organization has adopted a long-term vision to promote the liberalization of international air transport; meanwhile, it seeks to put an end to incompatibilities in market access conditions and encourages greater standardization of numerous regulatory provisions.

He stated that they have worked with air transport experts from States and industry to develop multilateral agreements to liberalize market access, air cargo services, ownership and control of air transport services.

In this way, -he explained- the waste of time and expense of negotiating a large number of bilateral Air Services Agreements (ASAs) is being put to an end, achieving more objective results; Likewise, "the aim is to eliminate incompatibilities in the conditions of access to the market and we continue to promote greater standardization of numerous regulatory provisions. Which allows the rapid creation of many new bilateral air services relationships within a single multilateral framework," said the manager.

Melvin Cintron added that in accordance with the decisions of the sixth session of the World Air Transport Conference, ICAO continues to develop multilateral agreements on the liberalization of market access, air cargo services and the ownership and control of air cargo services.

It has been stated at various air transport conferences that although the Chicago Conference of 1944 laid the groundwork for a secure civil aviation system, no agreement was reached on an exchange of air rights that was widely accepted.

Consequently, this system of thousands of bilateral air services agreements represents an onerous process and, although the agreements and understandings generally follow the same pattern, their language is not as uniform as it could or should be and they remain exclusively regional.

As part of these efforts, ICAO has been using its various forums, including the ICAO Air Services Negotiation Event (ICAN), the ICAO Air Transport Symposium (IATS) and other air transport events, to promote dialogue between States and industry to achieve a better understanding of the benefits and challenges of liberalization and the barriers to opening market access.