D-Day: ICAO Council Elects A New President Today

The International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO Council is at the verge of electing a new president for the period of 3-year tenure today (25th November, 2019). The candidates vying for the civil aviation highest office are: Captain Aysha Alhameli (United Arab Emirates); Mr. Salvatore Sciacchitano (Italy) and  Mr. Bakyt Dzhunushaliev, (Kyrgyzstan). Aviationage spoke extensively with the candidates from Italy (Salvatore) and UAE (Aysha) on their thought concerning the top aviation job.

Captain Aysha

Captain Aysha Alhameli (United Arab Emirates)

As the first female to make history if elected as the next president, Capt. Alhameli said: “I have been in this organization as a United Arab Emirates Representative for over 10 year. I worked very closely with Mr. Roberto Kobeh and the current president Dr. Aliu. I would say, I have been mentored and I worked together on many project with both presidents. I had the honour to work for 6 years with Dr. Aliu on many initiatives and I have to say with this experience and with this track record that I have in this organization, being a UAE Representative and through the projects that we have been implementing to advance the work of this organization to increase the transparency and efficiency of this organization, I think I can bring a lot and I could help this organization to move forward, carrying on the work that my predecessors had done.”

On her plan, “Before we talk about the plan, ICAO is a specialised agency in civil aviation. As a specialized agency, it is main objective is to maintain a safe, secure and sustainable aviation system and our core objective is to set standards and recommended practices in order to ensure our objectives.I come from an aviation background and I come from a technical background and also I have managerial and strategic background and I work in a political and aeropolitical environment before my post here in ICAO. Having this collective knowledge, I came up with many projects and I believe that. As I stand now, my campaign based on four (4) pillars which are increasing transparency, efficiency, innovation and inclusivity and under each pillar, I have come up with projects in the past that strengthen each of these pillars. I have to say that I have the support of current management and my colleagues at the council,” said she.

Building on the records so far achieved by the outgoing president, Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, she further said: “I need to say that I have been inspired by Dr. Aliu before he became a president. He was one of my role model as representative of being in ICAO Council for a very long time. His spirit, his initiatives and experience in the council is what I have been trying to imitate especially when I became a representative. As a president, he is one of the most inspirational president that had led this organization and I have to say he is a man of initiatives. The No Country Left Behind is one of the initiatives that people have been repeating since he embarked on this initiative. I have to say that I came from the school of Dr. Aliu and I believe ‘No Country Left Behind’ will stay and be stronger and I will build on this initiative that he started.  And I have to say that sometimes, it is difficult to find a leader who ares not afraid to make changes. I have to say what Dr. Aliu over the past years is a person that when you initiate something, he supports you 100 per cent and get excited and then he really takes the flag and go promote that work. It is rare to find that kind of leader who is not scared to take the flag and promote change, promote innovation. I have been impressed seeing him the way he leads the council. I have to say this is one of the reason I am doing this. He is my biggest inspiration.”

“You know when I started flying, I was Sixteen years old and I never thought, ‘I am a female and I want to fly.’ No. Even when I was appointed as a representative of UAE, I never thought I am a female and I am young, I just do whatever I want to do, whatever I feel I could  do to make a change and what makes me happy. When I decided that I want to run for the ICAO Presidency, is the right time, I really did not think that, ‘I am woman and the first woman’, I just believe that I am a council member and one of the three most senior representative on ICAO Council. I see it that I have the competence, the knowledge and the experience. I just happened to be a woman who is going to be a president. It is not because I am a woman running for the presidency. I believe that whoever has the qualification and the competence should run but should not be a focus of anybody who is aspiring for that job. It is a big responsibility.”

Mr. Salvatore

 Mr. Salvatore Sciacchitano (Italy) 

I have 39 years of experience in aviation. I spent my career in aviation from basic activities that was expected, up to top management level, national and international level. My focus has always been on not just aviation as such but management of aviation, that is a little bit different. When I was in Italy then I moved to Paris as an executive secretary of the European regional organization, my focus was to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. This bring my experience in terms of management of my skills that I related more on communications on the ability to create consensus on decisions that I will like to be taking. This is my experience in terms of aviation manager and this is the experience I am bringing to ICAO, if elected president of the council in order to give continuity to the work that has been done by the president, Dr. Benard Aliu and to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in order to face the challenges for the future.

Drive

Let me say in terms of evolution of career, the president of ICAO is the highest position in aviation. It is a challenging job because this organization is very much complex. It is an organisation with huge number of activities and an organization with a very strong history and complex mechanics-based on multilateralism. So one of the reasons why I decided to offer my ability as a candidate for the presidency of ICAO was my attitude to work, in order to create conditions to facilitate decisions. It is one of the aspersions that have been driving me.

Plan

The president of the council has the power to lead the council and not the power to take decisions. This is an important issue. You can bring ideas, you can bring your vision, but it is the council that will decide. So, what I will bring and what I will change in certain ways is to elaborate more on my suggestions, ideas and proposals in order that I have wide discussion within the council possibly more at informal level in order to facilitate communications , to facilitate common reflection, in order to create conditions for mutual trust and confidence. Of course, this is a methodology to bring decisions to the council. If you ask ‘what will you propose?’ I will bring the proposal that is coming from the recent Assembly where  there was clear message from one side to give continuity to the previous achievement in terms of the implementation of the programmes, ‘No Country Left Behind’ for sure, but at the same time to look for  new ways in order to bring enhancement to efficiency and effectiveness. In this sense, I will bring my reflections to the council on the modernization of the organization in the decision making process. This will have to be done from the perspectives; one is on the governance of this organization to find mechanism where the secretariat and council will have to work in a more symbiotic way and cooperative way. From the other side, my reflection will have to be on the working methods-on how decisions are taken. These are the proposal that I will bring to the council. I will not submit the proposal as a new format but as an element to be discussed that will elaborate the council. In this context, there are two related with the issues in the industry as already advised at the last Assembly. I will like face the innovation of technology. ICAO will need to face the challenge more quickly and effectively. Another one is on No Country Left Behind initiative. It should become an umbrella for other programmes. It will coordinate several assistance programmes.

On Dr. Aliu’s achievement

He has done a great job. He has lead the organization with neutrality and independent but a the same time bringing the attention of this organization towards the countries that needed to be supported more in order to enhance the level of implementation of safety and security SARPs. Combining independence and neutrality has been very important for the adoption of ICAO’s resolution on CORSIA. This was done in 2016 and it has been a great success of the president in terms of compromise and in terms of proposal that are acceptable by the majority of states. Many states were not happy. The other great achievement has been of course, the ‘No Country Left Behind’ that he launched 4 years ago and is now shown the effectiveness of the initiative. He has done well to push discussion on technology innovation.