On 29 September 2021, the ICAO EUR/NAT Office together with EASA organised a DGCA Conference on Crisis Coordination and Response. The meeting was attended by 140 participants from 40 States and 7 International and Regional Organisations who engaged in discussions on the lessons learnt and next steps to enhance overall resilience of air transportation against future crises.
Mr. Juan Carlos Salazar, ICAO Secretary General, opened the Conference followed by welcome remarks by Mr. Denis Guindon, Acting Regional Director for the ICAO EUR/NAT Region, Mr. Patrick Ky, Executive Director of EASA, as well as Mr. Luis Ribeiro, Chairman of the Board, National Civil Aviation Authority (Nacional Autoridade de Aviaçao Civil – ANAC), Chairman of the meeting.
The Meeting provided presentations on the impact of past and current crises, the role of national and regional contingency plans and exercises and was followed by a panel discussion.
Acknowledging that the current crisis is still ongoing, the meeting emphasised the importance of fostering a fast recovery by building on regional successes, such as the EU COVID certificate, EUR aviation health safety protocols, and expanding inter-regionally, e.g. EUR-NAT-NAM, to facilitate connectivity as a first step to global restart.
Having discussed the lessons learnt from the past and current crisis affecting the civil aviation system and with respect to the regional aviation crisis preparedness and response mechanisms, the Conference agreed on the following conclusions:
1. Close cooperation between European authorities, States and aviation industry is instrumental for any arrangements designed to manage and overcome crisis events with a negative impact on air transportation.
2. Considering the international nature of civil aviation, there is a need for efficient regional cooperation mechanisms to tackle major events affecting air transportation regardless of their source (safety, security, health etc.) at technical and political level.
3. Systematic and efficient coordination of all involved national stakeholders, including public health, through National Air Transport Facilitation Committees is key for preparedness and crisis response at the national level.
4. Taking into consideration the existing ICAO SARPS and newly developed guidance for the COVID-19 pandemic, enhanced compliance with the ICAO provisions and coordination through existing mechanisms (e.g. CAPSCA, VACP, Crisis Coordination Teams) to facilitate improved preparedness planning and crisis management for future events impacting aviation.
5. The past crisis events demonstrated that only Pan-European solutions compliant with ICAO SARPS and guidelines can be effective in providing solutions as it was achieved for the adoption of the EASA - ECDC COVID-19 Aviation Health Safety Protocol. Isolated and uncoordinated actions to an event of international nature should be avoided. The EUR Aviation Crisis Management Framework, associated mechanisms such as the European Aviation Coordination Crisis Cell and currently existing guidance material (e.g. EUR DOC 031) need to evolve in order to better manage events affecting aviation and not only network crises.
6. States need to cooperate closely based on pre-defined arrangements taking into consideration safety, security and other aspects and the necessity to ensure a quick recovery for the primary benefit of passengers and the aviation industry. Regional contingency and coordination plans and preparedness exercises are essential in that regard. The use of innovative technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence should be considered in future exercises.
7. Notwithstanding operational or financial impact on industry and on passengers' experience, safety, security and other aspects of any crisis need to be considered as a key element of a response to an event.
8. Information sharing on safety, security and other risks and risk mitigation measures between States and industry is a key element to ensure readiness for a crisis. States and Industry players should actively engage in the existing or yet to be established regional mechanisms for information sharing.
9. Recognising benefits resulting from the existing coordination mechanisms at the European level, a further reflection should be sought on how to ensure more agility and coordination in the future including inter-sectoral cooperation. To this end, it was agreed that ICAO, its Member States, EASA, EUROCONTROL and stakeholders such as ACI, CANSO and IATA to coordinate and suggest further improvement proposals to the EUR Crisis Management Framework for the DGCA's consideration.
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