Blog: ICAO, Growing International Aviation for 70 Years

Statement

On New Year's Day in 1914, the first commercial airplane flight took off between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida. It flew only 21 miles and carried only one paying passenger, but it launched the world's first scheduled commercial airline service. One airline, one flight, one passenger.

In 2014, a typical day now sees 100,000 flights carrying eight million passengers, and some of those flights cover thousands of miles. It's a far cry from the world of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay Airboat Line.

The world's aviation community is now synonymous with jobs, with economic growth, and with world trade. The world as we know it would not function without a healthy, vibrant, and regulated international aviation system. And that system would not be possible without the work of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Thirty years after that inaugural commercial flight in Florida, delegates from 52 nations met in Chicago to ensure that the emerging aviation industry would be used for peace, and for the benefit of all nations. The resulting Convention set forth the foundation and principles for ensuring the safe, efficient and economic growth of civil aviation. Those principles still guide and direct us today as ICAO celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Since 1944, we have seen the safe and dramatic growth of international civil aviation, which has made our world a much more accessible place. Aviation today supports 58.1 million jobs around world and provides a $2.4 trillion dollar global economic impact. It accounts for 3.4% of the world's GDP. And last year, nearly 3 billion passengers were carried by airlines for more than 3.5 trillion miles.

The men and women who began ICAO could not have envisioned the international aviation system we have today. But 70 years ago, they developed the Convention that made it possible.

Consider all the vast improvements since ICAO began its work to ensure a safe and efficient global aviation system. Safety rates have dramatically improved. Air traffic operations are becoming more and more efficient, and system modernization is taking hold. Aircraft are certified to incredibly safe levels. We are integrating new entrants into the global airspace and addressing environmental concerns.

This Department is very proud of our close relationship with ICAO. Through this organization --and with the efforts and technical expertise of Member States and industry-- we have worked together to set global aviation standards and guidelines. These standards have created a sound foundation for a safe, harmonized, and environmentally responsible aviation system.

For those of us who grew up in a world of relatively easy and affordable international air travel, it's easy to take for granted what ICAO has helped build: a global community that's more connected, more open, and more developed than previous generations would have ever imagined.

And the work that ICAO does today continues to be critical to the success of international aviation. Wecongratulate ICAO on its 70th anniversary and wish the organization even greater success in the years ahead.

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