International Civil Aviation Day

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated07/12/2021

International Civil Aviation Day was established in 1994 as part of ICAO’s 50th anniversary activities.
In 1996, pursuant to an ICAO initiative and with the assistance of the Canadian Government, the United Nations General Assembly officially recognized 7 December as International Civil Aviation Day in the UN system.

The purpose of International Civil Aviation Day is to help generate and reinforce worldwide awareness of the importance of international civil aviation to the social and economic development of States.
It also emphasizes on the unique role of ICAO in helping States to cooperate and realize a truly global rapid transit network at the service of all mankind.
As the UN and world nations have now adopted Agenda 2030, and embarked on a new era in global sustainable development, the importance of aviation as an engine of global connectivity has never been more relevant to the Chicago Convention’s objectives.

From 2019 until 2023, the Council has decided the theme to be “Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development”.

The Convention on International Civil Aviation, drafted in 1944 by 54 nations, was established to promote cooperation and “create and preserve friendship and understanding among the nations and peoples of the world”.
Known more commonly today as the ‘Chicago Convention’, this landmark agreement established the core principles permitting international transport by air.
It led to the creation of the specialized agency which has overseen it ever since – the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

ICAO is funded and directed by 193 national governments to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).
Its core function is to maintain an administrative and expert bureaucracy (the ICAO Secretariat) supporting these diplomatic interactions, and to research new air transport policy and standardization innovations.
The organisation is directed and endorsed by governments through the ICAO Assembly, or by the ICAO Council which the assembly elects.
Industry and civil society groups, and other concerned regional and international organizations, also participate in the exploration and development of new standards at ICAO in their capacity as ‘Invited Organizations’.