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The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) marked the 80th anniversary of the signing of an agreement establishing the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations agency that regulates international air navigation and promotes the safe development of global aviation standards.
“Even as World War II raged on, there was worldwide recognition of the need for a single body to coordinate the evolution of a rapidly developing industry to become a unified, global civil aviation system,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “We congratulate ICAO for 80 years of successfully guiding international cooperation on the development of a safe, secure and sustainable aviation community.”
Fifty-two signatories pledged to form ICAO on Dec. 7, 1944, during the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention. The formal establishment of the organization came two years later upon ratification of that agreement by 26 member states. Today, ICAO is comprised of 193 members.
Business aviation stakeholders are represented at ICAO by the International Business Aviation Council, or IBAC. Founded in 1981, the council is comprised of 15 member associations from around the world, including NBAA.
“For 80 years, ICAO has fostered worldwide connectivity, safety, innovation and improved sustainability,” said IBAC Director General Kurt Edwards. “We are pleased to join NBAA and its members in recognizing the visionaries who crafted the Chicago Convention and in congratulating ICAO on this historic occasion. IBAC looks forward to continued collaboration with ICAO for the greater good of the nations and peoples of the world.”
ICAO marked the anniversary with a two-day event at the Illinois hotel that hosted the inaugural Chicago Convention. The Dec. 4-5 gathering featured remarks by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michael Whitaker, administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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