Seoul, 16-18 April 2024 — ECAC President, Alessio Quaranta, participated in the ICAO Legal Seminar held in Seoul from 16 to 18 April. The event featured updates on ICAO’s work programme on legal matters and discussed a range of current topics in international law. It was also an occasion to celebrate 2024 as the Year of Facilitation – as established by ICAO – and to commemorate the 75th anniversary of ICAO Annex 9, which governs facilitation matters.
Mr Quaranta was honoured to open the seminar alongside the Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea, Won Kug Baek, and ICAO Secretary General, Juan Carlos Salazar, in the presence of ministers from around the world and delegates from 93 countries. In his opening remarks, Mr Quaranta emphasised the crucial role of ICAO’s legal activity, highlighting the importance of ratifying legal instruments for the legal certainty and stability they provide to the aviation sector.
Mr Quaranta also moderated Session 3 of the seminar, which centred on facilitation topics. This session explored the concept of facilitation from the various perspectives of the speakers, addressing it from a legal standpoint with a focus on the Montreal Protocol (MP14). The protocol, adopted in 2014, governs unruly passenger incidents posing a risk to the safety of passengers and flight operations and establishes minimum provisions for sanctioning unruly behaviour. It came into force on 1 January 2020 following its ratification by 22 ICAO Member States.
The session also addressed data protection topics and the ongoing complications faced by Member States and industry regarding Passenger Name Record (PNR) data transfers, due to inconsistencies and conflicts with national data protection laws. Amendment 29 to Annex 9 introduced many new Standards and Recommended Practices related to PNR data. Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2396 (2017) mandates that all States develop their capability to collect, process and analyse PNR data. States and industry still face challenges with these data transfers due to conflicts of national data protection laws.
In conclusion, the ICAO Legal Seminar provided a valuable forum for discussion on legal matters relevant to aviation professionals. It also reaffirmed ECAC’s long-standing commitment to contributing to a safe and sustainable legal framework in the aviation sector.