The International Air Transport Association (Iata) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have teamed up to ensure that air transport continues to improve safety and environmental performance, and achieves financial sustainability.

“As the global recession continues to take its toll on the aviation industry, we also face challenges on many of the industry’s fundamental priorities—including safety and environment,” said Iata director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani in remarks to a gathering of ICAO state representatives and Raymond Benjamin, ICAO’s secretary general.

“The need for industry and government cooperation to address these has never been greater,” he added, noting environment as a priority for the two global organisations.

“Aviation needs a global sectoral approach to address aviation’s emissions under ICAO leadership. This was the vision of Kyoto. And it must be retained when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets in Copenhagen this December,” said Bisignani.

In preparation for Copenhagen, ICAO will host a high level meeting on International Aviation and Climate Change in Montreal from October 7 to 9.

“Iata is ready to do whatever is necessary to support a successful outcome in Montreal that bridges ICAO’s principle of universality with the common but differentiated responsibility approach of the UNFCCC,” said Bisignani.

“Air transport is the first global industry to commit to carbon neutral growth. And we have done it with an aggressive timeline of 2020. Our success depends on governments moving forward to implement more effective air traffic management, create the legal and fiscal framework to support the development of sustainable biofuels for aviation and fuel efficiency targets for new aircraft,” said Bisignani.

“Safety is the industry’s top priority and an excellent reminder of the power of ICAO/Iata cooperation to deliver impressive results,” said Bisignani as the two organisations signed a commercial agreement to create web-based products to support the safe carriage of dangerous goods.

The two companies will jointly develop a product called iShip, which is targeted especially at the shipping community. It integrates dangerous goods shipping tools with Iata’s dangerous goods regulations content. iShip will be available in the first half of 2010, according to a statement.

They will also develop a Web-based product called DGOnline, which will display, from any station computer or mobile device with Internet access, the latest information from leading dangerous goods regulatory and industry publications, including state and operator variations and updates, in multiple languages. It will be available before the end 2009, said the statement. – TradeArabia News Service