100 Years of ATC..............Regulatory Framework for Air Navigation

Looking ahead to 2022 when IFATCA will celebrate 100 Years of air traffic control, it’s worth looking back to some significant milestones that led up to establishing ATC. One such milestone was the establishment of an international regulatory framework for air navigation.

Despite several attempts from 1903 onwards, states did not successfully agree on regulations for international aviation in the first decade of the 20th century. When Louis Blériot crossed the English Channel in July 1909, he carried no identity papers. Contrary to the freedom many Europeans currently enjoy – the Shengen zone generally enables them to travel between countries without identity checks – this was far from evident in the lead-up to World War I (WWI). The flight led France to convene an international conference to try to regulate air navigation in 1911. About 20 countries took part, but there were too many disagreements, particularly on the question of foreign aircraft overflying other states, probably again triggered by the mistrust between the different countries. Another attempt was made by the Allied Nations during the second half of WWI. The primary mission of the Inter-Allied Aviation Committee, created in 1917, was to study solutions to standardize the types of aircraft, engines, and aeronautical equipment used by the Allies during the war. While it was dissolved in 1918, it inspired Albert Roper (See page 10 for more information.) to establish a similar structure dedicated to civil aviation.

French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, who chaired the Paris Peace Conference, agreed with Dr. Roper’s views and proposed the attending states to revive the Inter-Allied Aviation Committee as the Aeronautical Commission. This commission would be tasked to draw up an international convention on air navigation.

The “Convention Relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation” was signed on 13th October 1919 in the Clock Room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. It established the main principles for the development of civil aviation, and article 34 called for the creation of "... a permanent Commission under the direction of the League of Nations,” the future ICAN.

The Commission was formally established on the 11th of July in 1922 after the 1919 convention was ratified by 14 states. ICAN met for the first time in Paris, which became its permanent home. They elected Albert Roper as Secretary General. At the time, no other international agency possessed such extensive powers. As well as monitoring the application of the Convention, ICAN

z Photo (left): Clock Room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, where the first Convention Relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation was signed in October 1919

centralized and disseminated information, published aeronautical charts, and maintained regular relations with other organizations in order to establish common rules for air navigation. A decision by the majority were binding for all member countries. For this reason, the United States chose to ratify a separate agreement: the Havana Convention.

IFATCA

In an effort to expand membership, ICAN adopted two protocols giving new members equal voting rights and the possibility of concluding special conventions. When these texts came into force in 1926, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ratified the Convention. Negotiations with Germany took longer and were eventually accepted in 1929. These were to have taken effect in 1933, but eventually failed due to the rise of the Nazi Party and the establishment of the Third Reich.

By 1939, 33 states had committed to the Paris Convention. In the same year, ICAN adopted the Instructions on the International Telecommunications Service for Aerial Navigation (IITSAN) and created an International Radio Aeronautical Committee (IRAC). The latter organization, based in Brussels, attempted to harmonize technical procedures and operating methods used in civil aviation, but its work was suspended at the outbreak of war.

The Second World War meant a technological boost for aviation and rendered existing regulations obsolete. It triggered the USA to convene an international conference in Chicago from 1st November to 7th December 1944. The fifty-two attending nations agreed to a new convention and to a new permanent agency whose objective was “to develop the principles and techniques of international air navigation.”

After twenty-six countries ratified the Chicago Convention, a Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization

Photo by ICAO

z Photo (above): Members of Interim Council of PICAO in Council Chamber in Sun Life Building, Montreal.

(PICAO) was established in Canada. Dr. Albert Roper became its Secretary General. PICAO was to coordinate technical standards for the Civil aviation sector and define international standards in liaison with ICAN. During the first Interim Assembly in 1946, Montreal was selected as the new seat for the organization.

In the meantime, ICAN was looking to update the Paris Convention, which was still in force, using the Annexes of the Chicago Convention as a guideline. The proposed amendments were discussed in London in August 1949.

On 4th April 1947, the Chicago Convention entered into force and the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization dropped the ‘P’ of provisional and became ICAO, which was composed of an Assembly, a Council, an Air Navigation Commission (ANC), an Air Transport Committee (ATC) and a Secretariat. The organization held its first General Assembly in May 1947 in Montréal. ICAN was in the meantime being dissolved, a decision formalized at its meeting in Dublin in October 1946. In December 1947, ICAN was dissolved, and part of its staff was transferred to ICAO’s European-Mediterranean Office. From then on, ICAO would become the focal point for international regulations on air navigation.

Without a doubt, the various international agreements, conventions and organization played an essential role in establishing standards that allowed Air Traffic Service to develop and grow to what it is today. The formal ratification of the 1919 Paris Convention in 1922 is one of the reasons IFATCA identified this year as pivotal for the establishment of ATC. y

philip.marien@ifatca.org