The Secretary of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Dr.
Fang Liu has said that air freight volumes will grow at a healthy rate of 4.2 per cent annually through to 2032.
Speaking at the organisation’s latest Air Cargo Development Forum held recently in Zhengzhou, China, Liu however said the feat would be achieved only if current air cargo modernisation continues to be robustly and cooperatively pursued by governments and industry.
The forum’s timing references how, in 2017, air services carried 34.6% of the total value of all goods shipped through all modes of transport, as well as ICAO’s desire to increase public and private sector awareness of the critical importance of efficient air cargo operations to local and global economic development.
“With current consumer expectations for same day or next day delivery driving a great deal of today’s growth in e-commerce and air freight, we cannot allow the speed and efficiency of commercial operations to be impeded due to network capacity shortfalls or other infrastructure-relate risks,” she said.
Liu added that governments everywhere now have much greater investment certainty thanks to the guidance, targets and indicators reflected in ICAO’s strategic global plans.
Stressing ICAO’s fundamental commitment to safety, Liu further highlighted ICAO’s ongoing efforts to open airspace to cargo drones and integrate them effectively with existing low-altitude aircraft operations, issues which the Organization will explore in much more detail next week with the international experts arriving for its backto-back Unmanned Aviation events in Chengdu.
She also commented on the cooperation being undertaken in three areas which are essential today to the sustainability and profitability of air freight operations.
“The first of these pertains to the modernization of the regulatory framework, to help remove impediments which can hinder the flow of global trade,” she underscored.
“The second is the development, expansion and modernization of aviation infrastructure.
And the third key area is the deployment of emerging technologies,” she said.
The ICAO secretary also noted that air transport liberalisation has helped accelerate air cargo regulatory reform, and must continue, whether through bilateral or multilateral instruments.
She pointed to the tremendous success of ICAO’s Air Services Negotiation (ICAN) events in this regard, and to ICAO’s current work on an international agreement to address regulatory and operational constraints.
“ICAO is developing a specific international agreement to further facilitate this dynamic.
“Our objective is to help States modernize and harmonize their regulatory frameworks on a multinational basis,” said.
Concerning infrastructure gaps, the secretary stressed that ICAO is helping to foster and support new aviation investment through a variety of events and initiatives, and that there was never a more pressing need for increased air transport modernisation.
