The Association of European Airlines, representing Europe’s most important network carriers, have issued a press statement welcoming the agreement reached by the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to move forward in developing a global scheme to manage aviation emissions impacting the environment.

The agreement, reached on Friday, 4 October in Montreal, was the work program for industry stakeholders and an expression of alignment among the 191 nations represented in ICAO.

The global aviation sector have worked towards ‘market-based measures’ (MBMs) to incentivise emissions abatement while maintaining a level playing-field in what is a strongly competitive international industry.  The ICAO agreement is an acknowledgement of the industry’s commitment.

Market-based measures are just one tool in the quest to mitigate the impact of aviation emissions.  

The key to sustainability is technology, and air transport must have the means to invest in the new technologies which will make low-carbon air travel a reality.  The industry will continue to seek operational answers to flying more efficiently, but must have the infrastructure in place to deliver the potential benefits – in this respect the lack of a Single European Sky is a huge environmental burden.

Athar Husain Khan, acting secretary general of AEA, said: “This is a triumph for real-world politics.

“Gradual progress is better than no progress at all and infinitely better than division and confrontation.

Channeling the diversity within ICAO into a common purpose will be a challenging task, but ultimately the rewards will be enormous”

“The first step has been taken, and it is an important one.”