Policy and Regulation
ICAO continued efforts to promote its long term vision for air transport liberalization.
The Fifteenth meeting of the Air Transport Regulation Panel, held in April 2019, agreed to undertake further work to build a better understanding of the benefits and challenges of liberalization and the barriers to opening market access, both in terms of passenger and cargo services, and, in particular, to identify assistance required by Member States in pursuing liberalization. The Panel also agreed to continue the development of the Convention on Foreign Investment in Airlines, which aims to liberalize air carrier ownership and control on a multilateral basis.
The Panel was supported by a survey of Member States’ liberalization of air transport.
In regard to fair competition, ICAO’s efforts focused on developing tools to enhance the transparency of States’ competition rules, and to foster cooperation, dialogue and regulatory compatibility. In this respect, the
compendium of competition policies and practices in force nationally or regionally was developed and is being regularly updated by the Secretariat. The database now covers 129 States, or 68 per cent of the ICAO membership.
The
database concerning consumer protection continued to be updated in 2019.
Member States and concerned stakeholders are encouraged to give regard to, and apply, the ICAO high level, non-binding, non-prescriptive core principles on consumer protection in policy-making and regulatory and operational practices, including in case of massive disruptions impacting aviation. In December 2019 ICAO disseminated a State letter with a survey on these matters.
