With the certainty that a vaccine will not be enough to immediately end the pandemic, it seeks to universalize new operating rules globally

The ICAO Council yesterday approved new updates to the Take-off Guidelines for International Air Transport from its Aviation Recovery Working Group (CART).
The new guidelines provide recommendations for countries to consider adopting based on their current local medical status, and on specific priorities including general hygiene, face masks and coverings, health screenings and declarations, air passengers with reduced mobility, and worker mental health and well-being. and aviation passengers.
They also recognize each country's sovereignty and authority over its national pandemic recovery priorities, including with regard to the assessment and use of passenger testing to help ease quarantine measures and reconnect destinations globally.

"Countries are urged to follow this updated guide to align their measures, while maintaining the prerogative of each State to implement additional and / or alternative mitigation measures according to their specific needs and circumstances," said the President of the Council. from ICAO, Salvatore Sciacchitano.

"The speed of the evolution of the world situation requires timely and specific guidance to effectively support States in their efforts to contain the pandemic while seeking the restart and recovery of aviation," he emphasized. "This makes clear the fundamental importance of global and regional coordination in establishing mutually accepted measures."

The Chairman of the Recovery Task Force, Estanislao Esono Anguesomo of Equatorial Guinea, noted that the latest updates from the task force focus “primarily on evolving medical and technological advances in the fight against COVID-19. They incorporate the continuous feedback that ICAO is receiving from national authorities, international organizations, including the World Health and Tourism Organizations (WHO / UNWTO), as well as regional organizations and industries ”.

The high-level coverage document for the new guidelines emphasizes that a combination of measures, coordinated between governments and industry, will be essential to restore public confidence in air travel. He points out that this is the only sustainable solution to overcome the economic and financial situation currently facing the sector.

ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu welcomed this view and hoped that the latest global guidance results from countries, UN agencies, industry groups and regional organizations that are contributing to CART will help to the passengers fly again.

“The ICAO Secretariat is providing critical global monitoring, guidance and coordination resources to help countries implement the CART recommendations,” he commented, “and we have been encouraged by recent progress in establishing new international corridors of travel and health between specific destinations. They are taking some important and prudent first steps towards greater traveler confidence and sector recovery. "

New Considerations of the Guidelines

Cross-border risk management measures and tests
The first edition of the CART Take-off Guidelines document noted that the COVID-19 rapid tests available at the time were not recommended due to their relatively low level of effectiveness.
Since then, test technology continues to improve rapidly. Additionally, health authorities have gained a greater understanding of how the COVID-19 virus is transmitted and how the effective use of certain tests could help reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission.
In addition, it was recognized that the introduction of tests could, if properly implemented in States that assess them as appropriate for their situation, reduce reliance on measures such as quarantines that restrict air travel or the movement of people arriving in a country. , and that the evidence suggests that it is a disincentive for several major categories of travel.
While public health authorities do not universally recommend testing as a health screening method, some states have implemented it for this purpose. CART therefore commissioned the Collaborative Agreement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) to study the available test methods and advise CART on the factors that States might consider with respect to the testing, as well as guidance on how to implement testing as part of an overall risk management strategy if they so choose.
Therefore, CART recommends that States contemplating testing should apply the approach outlined in the ICAO Manual on Transboundary Risk Management Testing and Measures (currently under final review by WHO, with expected publication date on Nov. 16). If they do, States are also encouraged to consider affordable means of evidence to minimize passenger travel costs.
The ICAO Manual provides assessment tools that States can use to assess and implement related tests and measures as part of their decision-making process, as well as guidance on how to assess different mitigation strategies and how they can contribute to the management risk to public health. 
To help States develop a risk assessment framework that is tailored to sovereign considerations and integrates with existing national frameworks, CAPSCA also developed a generic decision-making tool that can be used to determine the level of inherent risk. and residual from potentially infectious passenger transport.
Each State should conduct its own assessment and is encouraged to use the processes outlined in the Manual as the basis for its assessment. Risk tolerance varies between states and depends on many factors. This influences the amount of residual risk that a State can accept. The determination of this level, as well as the policies and measures to mitigate the risk, is not universal and is within the specific priorities and competencies of each individual State.
The Manual has been developed using the latest information available. The urgency, rapid development, and observed consequences of the current scenario require a swift approach to modifying the Manual. Consequently, regular updates will be required as the evidence evolves and technology advances. Data-based adjustments to the guide will be made as the situation evolves.

Masks and Public Hygiene
The guide on face coverings and medical masks has been updated to allow passengers to travel who cannot tolerate a face cover or medical mask, such as young children or people with physical, respiratory or other medical conditions. It also includes a new section on general hygiene to be followed at airports and on board aircraft.

Public Health Corridors (APS)
When considering the guidance contained in the updated Takeoff Guidelines document and the ICAO Manual on Transboundary Risk Management Tests and Measures, States are strongly encouraged to collaborate with each other regarding the implementation of PHC.
An APS is formed when two or more states agree to recognize the public health mitigation measures that each has implemented on one or more routes between their states. To enable such mutual recognition, States are strongly encouraged to actively share information with other States and engage in bilateral or multilateral discussions with each other to implement PHC in a harmonized manner.
To facilitate the implementation of the APS, the ICAO implementation package on the establishment of an APS will be available to States on November 16, 2020.

Aviation security-related measures
As States strive to restart air travel, a large proportion of the world's fleet, aircrew, airport operations personnel, and air traffic controllers who have been inactive for Extended periods will need to be reactivated and retrained, as appropriate.
To ensure a safe restart, States must take the necessary measures to mitigate the safety risks associated with such a restart.
States that have presented differences due to temporary deviations from ICAO standards based on contingency-related differences (CCRD) of COVID-19, or that have granted other regulatory attenuations related to COVID-19, are reminded that these differences and attenuations they were meant to be temporary in nature. 
Prolonged gaps and attenuations, such as those related to personnel certification and licensing, could create a high safety risk. Therefore, States must implement the necessary measures to manage these risks and must not extend the palliations (both central and extended CCRDs) beyond March 31, 2021.
States are encouraged to provide access to medical and training facilities, including flight simulation training devices used by flight crews to maintain their recent experience and competence.
States are also strongly recommended to refer their operators to the ICAO safety measures website, where links to guidance documents developed by ICAO, ACI, IATA, ICCAIA and others are available.

Airports Council International (ACI) World has embraced the updated guidance for states to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel, published by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
As parts of the global aviation ecosystem continue to take small steps towards recovery, global coherence remains the key to a sustained and effective restart of operations. Airports, airlines, governments and regulators have turned to ICAO to provide the coherent guidance needed to support globally harmonized measures that will increase public confidence in air travel and support continued safe operations.
"We welcome the new guidance from the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Working Group that will help establish a globally harmonized approach to health measurements and testing," said ACI Global Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira. “The overriding problem is testing: we need an agreed approach to testing as a means of facilitating safe travel rather than the restrictive quarantine measures that are hampering the industry's recovery efforts.
"The acceptance and implementation of measures by the member states will reinforce the alignment of the sector with the requirements of the health authorities of each country, providing the confidence we need to restart operations safely and contribute to the recovery of the world economy ".
ACI World also foresees the publication of the Guidance Manual on Cross-Border Risk Management Tests and Measures being developed by the ICAO Collaboration Agreement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA).
“The manual will be an invaluable contribution to the industry, as it will provide countries with a risk management framework to evaluate the test options and the factors to consider in the implementation of the tests,” said Luis Felipe de Oliveira. "This will guide countries to remove the quarantine to implement flexible and risk-based tests that will ensure that passengers recognize that their health and safety are the priority and that the recovery of air travel can be accelerated."

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also supported the ICAO initiative. “The public should be calm. Take-off guidance will keep the flight safe through this pandemic with recommendations that combine the best advice from public health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, with the technical expertise of aviation regulators and operators. By addressing the need for harmonized COVID-19 testing requirements as part of a multi-layered approach, CART is also helping build trust among governments to manage the risks of COVID-19 importation while removing barriers to travel, such as quarantines. The goal is to reconnect the world safely and these recommendations move us forward ”,

The urgency to regain confidence
September has perhaps marked an inflection showing that there is no more room to continue falling. Total demand (measured in passengers per revenue kilometer or RPK) was 72.8% below the levels of the same month of 2019.
“We have hit a wall in the recovery of the industry. A resurgence of COVID-19 outbreaks, particularly in Europe and the US, combined with governments' reliance on the blunt quarantine instrument in the absence of globally aligned testing regimes, has halted the momentum toward reopening. of the borders to travel. Although domestic markets are improving, this is mainly due to improvements in China and Russia. And domestic traffic represents only a little more than a third of total traffic, so it is not enough to maintain an overall recovery ”, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA Director General and CEO.