Air transport is an essential service industry in the development of a modern economy. Globalization, communications and markets have expanded around the world thanks to aviation. By spurring tourism and trade as it continues to grow, aviation contributes to increasing consumer benefits and choices, creating jobs and generating numerous socioeconomic spin-offs for States. The increased connectivity that aviation delivers should lead States to further reinvest in this sector, thus creating a healthy cycle of aviation development and economic prosperity in States and regions which set out suitable planning and investment commitments.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic imposed an enormous human, social, and financial toll on the world and civil aviation. The economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic is also being felt by the tourism sector. The restrictions in air travel impacted the national hospitality and tourism sectors severely. ICAO presently forecasts that traffic levels will return to 2019 levels no sooner than 2022, and possibly as late as 2024. As the industry continues to recover from the pandemic, training on Civil Aviation Master Planning (CAMP) will effectively support developing States in their efforts.
Master planning of the aviation system is critical to ensuring a State is ready to revitalize its aviation sector in the post-pandemic recovery. It is fundamental for States to develop a CAMP to provide their governments with an outlook of the prospect for civil aviation within their States.
To meet the needs of Member States for developing or updating their master plans for aviation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund of China has provided ICAO with a voluntary contribution to develop and deliver the ICAO Training Package (ITP) on Civil Aviation Master Planning. This joint project between ICAO and China aims at providing quality and competency-based training opportunities to 500 participants nominated by 60 Member States in 2022 in order to assist the States to better recover from the pandemic and build a more resilient aviation system for future growth.
ICAO’s Asia/Pacific Office organized the first Regional Session of the Civil Aviation Master Planning (CAMP) Training Course in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 17 to 21 October 2022. A second, subsequent regional session of the CAMP Training Course was organized in Bangkok, Thailand, from 24 to 28 October 2022. The courses were delivered to nominated participants from ICAO Asia/Pacific States under the auspices of the ICAO Global Aviation Training (GAT) CAMP Scholarship Programme.
Funded by the Government of China (USD1.62 million), ICAO initiated a dedicated project in 2021 to develop and deliver the brand-new ITP CAMP training course. The course addresses the critical needs of managing States’ civil aviation master plans and integrating the civil aviation sector into national development plans. It also provides senior and middle managers of the State’s Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) with the competencies required to develop, implement, and update a CAMP, including the recovery from the impacts of COVID-19, following the relevant ICAO provisions. Various ICAO Regional Offices will deliver the CAMP course in 2023.
