History of the Mexico Office

Brief history of the Mexico Office (North American and Caribbean [NACC] Office)

The Mexico Regional Office was established in Mexico City on 15 February 1957. In June 2019, the Office moved to its present location. Its location has changed, as follows:

	15 February 1957 to 1 January 1973:		Av. Chapultepec 540, Colonia Juarez, Mexico
	2 January 1973 to 1 September 1996:		Av. Thiers 251, 5th floor, Colonia Anzures, C.P. 11590, Mexico
	2 September 1996 to 31 May 2019:		Av. Presidente Masaryk No. 29, 3rd Floor, Col. Chapultepec Morales, C.P. 11570, Mexico
	1 June 2019 to present:		Calzada Mariano Escobedo 526, 2nd Floor Col. Anzures, C.P. 11590, Mexico

Regional Offices - Historical Background

Shortly after the establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization in December 1944, the Interim Council recognized the need to subdivide the world into air navigation regions in order to facilitate the planning and implementation of ground services and facilities essential for international air transport operations. The two principal concepts which led to this conclusion are:

as the operational and technical problems inherent in different parts of the world varied considerably, it was logical that the planning and implementation of the required ground services should be carried out on an area or regional basis - the geographical limits of which should be such as to encompass air route stages having a certain degree of homogeneity, and therefore entailing a somewhat uniform set of requirements; and

planning the requirements for air navigation facilities and services is done through consultation among a limited number of States, rather than in preference to planning on a world-wide basis. These consultations are carried out on an area basis and normally through regional air navigation meetings. The need to conduct the planning of the facilities and services required for the world-wide network of international air routes in a small number of areas of manageable proportions is evident.

Considerations of a non-operational or non-technical nature, which may play a role in determining the requirements for air navigation services and facilities, are the geographical and climatological conditions that prevail in certain areas of the world and the means by which these requirements can be met in those areas. With the foregoing in mind, in 1944, the Interim Council, recognized the need to subdivide the world to facilitate planning, as follows.

•     operational and technical problems varied
•     planning preferable at regional level
•     consultations done at regional air navigation meetings
•     planning impractical on a worldwide basis.

The Interim Council agreed, in 1945, to establish ten air navigation regions, the boundaries of which roughly coincided with the continental and oceanic masses. In defining these boundaries, provision was made for overlapping of the regions at the edges such that as many as possible of the terminals associated with the air route network for the region were included within the region. The original ten air navigation regions consisted of the African-Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the European-Mediterranean, the Middle East, the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, the South American, the South Atlantic, the South Pacific and the Southeast Asian Regions. By 1952, the number of regions was reduced to eight by combining the North and South Pacific Regions into the Pacific Region and the South American and the South Atlantic Regions, retaining the name of the former.

General Responsibilities of Each Regional Office

Each Regional Office is responsible for serving the Contracting States to which it is accredited and maintaining liaison with non-Contracting States and other territories in the areas of general responsibility, for the performance of the following:

Air Navigation functions, including, assisting, expediting and following up of:
1. action by States to implement regional plans and regional supplementary procedures; and
2. implementation of ICAO Standards, Recommended Practices and procedures.
Air Transport functions, including States and international organizations of ICAO air transport policies and activities, and encouraging States to file statistics, to implement Annex 9 on facilitation, to submit replies to economic study questionnaires and to submit data for revision of the Manual of Airport and Air Navigation Facility Tariffs (Doc 7100).
Regional Bodies, where established, close co-operation with the regional bodies: African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (LACAC), and co-ordination of interrelated work programmes to avoid duplication of effort and to ensure harmony in the development of the international air transport system as a whole.
Technical Co-operation functions, including the Regional Scholarship Programme and assistance in investigating fellowship applications; provision of advice on programming, including co-ordination within the region of requests for regional projects; briefing of newly-recruited Technical Co-operation experts.
Legal, obtaining current copies of air laws and regulations, as well as information on contemplated air legislation and regulations, from Contracting States; obtaining, on request, judicial information relating to aviation matters.
Aviation Security, encouraging, assisting, expediting, monitoring and following up all aspects of aviation security in accordance with ICAO policy, Standards, Recommended Practices and procedures.
General, reporting on implementation by States of Assembly and Council Resolutions regarding aviation security; reporting on aviation accidents and incidents to enable follow-up action by ICAO as may be required; the distribution of ICAO publications and documents in accordance with Headquarters policy; the holding of meetings at regional office locations, or other appropriate locations within the areas of general responsibility, the participation in press, television and radio interviews and the provision of lectures on ICAO activities; the follow-up with Contracting States, as required, on the collection of contributions and the attendance at meetings of other international organizations.