ICAO and Conventions

Articles 17 to 42 connect the aircraft to its State, reduce border delays, require essential documents, establish mutual recognition and create the process by which international standards and national differences coexist.

Articles 17 to 28

Article 29 documents carried in international navigation

1. Certificate of registration.
2. Certificate of airworthiness.
3. Appropriate licences for each crew member.
4. Journey log book.
5. Aircraft radio station licence when radio apparatus is fitted.
6. Passenger list with names, places of embarkation and destination when passengers are carried.
7. Cargo manifest and detailed declarations when cargo is carried.

Articles 30 to 42

ICAO is the permanent organisation created by the Chicago Convention. It is a specialised agency linked with the United Nations, but its Assembly, Council, commissions and Secretariat have distinct functions.

Status and objectives

ICAO became a specialised United Nations agency in 1947. Its headquarters is in Montreal, Canada. Bali lists 193 members, including the Cook Islands. Its aims are to develop principles and techniques of international air navigation and foster planning and development of international air transport.

1. Ensure safe and orderly growth of international civil aviation.
2. Encourage aircraft design and operation for peaceful purposes.
3. Encourage development of airways, airports and air navigation facilities.
4. Meet the need for safe, regular, efficient and economical air transport.
5. Prevent economic waste caused by unreasonable competition.
6. Ensure that Contracting State rights are respected and each has a fair opportunity to operate international airlines.
7. Avoid discrimination between Contracting States.
8. Promote flight safety in international air navigation.
9. Promote development of all aspects of international civil aeronautics.

The governing bodies

Regional structure

Seven regional offices serve nine recognised regions. The offices are Bangkok, Cairo, Dakar, Lima, Mexico City, Nairobi and Paris. The nine regions are Africa and Indian Ocean, North America, Asia, Caribbean, North Atlantic, Europe, Pacific, Middle East and South America. Regional Air Navigation meetings periodically consider the operational requirements of defined geographical areas and keep regional plans current.

The Annex number is an exam fact, but the publication type is equally important. Annexes contain international SARPs, PANS contain operating procedures, regional procedures apply within specified regions, and manuals provide guidance.

The nineteen Annexes

Bali identifies Annexes 2, 5, 7 and 8 as containing international Standards without Recommended Practices, while the other fifteen contain both.

Publication families

Core documents and manuals listed by Bali

A freedom of the air is a traffic privilege between States. The first two are technical freedoms. The next three are commercial freedoms and describe where passengers, mail or cargo are put down or taken on.

The two agreements

Freedom by freedom

Cabotage is separate

Cabotage is carriage of passengers, mail or cargo between two points in the same country by an aircraft of another State. Article 7 permits a State to refuse it. Do not confuse cabotage with the fifth freedom, which concerns traffic between different foreign States on a service linked to the airline's home State.

The security conventions form a chain. Tokyo addresses offences and authority on board, The Hague targets unlawful seizure, Montreal targets acts against aviation safety, later instruments extend coverage to airports, explosives and modern threats.

Tokyo Convention 1963

The Tokyo Convention applies to offences against penal law and to acts that jeopardise aircraft safety, persons, property, good order or discipline on board. It generally applies to acts on an aircraft registered in a Contracting State while in flight, over the high seas or outside any State's territory, and excludes military, customs and police aircraft.

The State of Registry is competent to exercise jurisdiction. Another State may intervene in the stated cases, including effects in its territory, an offence by or against its national or permanent resident, an offence against its security, breach of its flight rules, or action needed to meet a multilateral obligation.

Aircraft commander powers

1. Impose reasonable restraint where there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed or is about to commit a covered offence or act.
2. Act to protect the aircraft, persons or property, maintain good order and discipline, or enable delivery or disembarkation of the person.
3. Require or authorise crew assistance. The commander may request or authorise passenger assistance, but cannot require it.
4. Notify the authorities as soon as practicable, preferably before landing, when a restrained person is on board and state the reasons.

For the general scope, the aircraft is considered in flight from application of power for take-off until the landing run ends. For commander powers, the relevant period begins when all external doors close after embarkation and ends when a door opens for disembarkation, with special continuation after a forced landing until competent authorities take over.

The security treaty chain

A separate treaty chain deals with private rights rather than operational safety. It covers contracts and carrier liability, third-party damage on the surface, and legal interests in financed aircraft.

Warsaw to Montreal 1999

Transport documents and liability

Bali notes that the Warsaw system became one of the most widely accepted private-law unifications, with 152 States described as parties in the printed text. A passenger ticket identifies the place and date of issue, departure and destination, agreed stopping places, carrier identity and the applicability of liability rules. Loss or irregularity of the ticket does not itself invalidate the contract of carriage. Checked baggage other than small personal items is covered by a baggage check, with copies for passenger and carrier.

Bali retains a historical 100,000 Special Drawing Rights figure while explaining the earlier liability system, then gives the Montreal 1999 two-tier passenger liability value. Up to 113,100 Special Drawing Rights for injury or death, the carrier cannot defeat the claim by proving absence of negligence. Above that level, the carrier may defend itself by proving that it was not negligent or otherwise at fault. These figures are studied here as Bali's printed examination values.

Ground damage and property interests

Denunciation or withdrawal

A State Party withdraws by written notification to the depositary, which is ICAO for the instruments listed by Bali. Tokyo 1963, The Hague 1970, Montreal 1971, Montreal Protocol 1988 and Beijing 2010 use a six-month notice period. Montreal 1999 uses 90 days.

International commitments require national institutions. Bali places the Ministry of Civil Aviation above the aviation bodies, identifies DGCA as the safety regulator and describes AAI as the principal airport and air navigation service organisation within its assigned jurisdiction.

Ministry of Civil Aviation

The Ministry formulates national policy and programmes for development and regulation of civil aviation. It administers national aviation legislation and exercises administrative control over attached and autonomous organisations and public-sector aviation bodies.

DGCA functions listed by Bali

1. Register civil aircraft.
2. Formulate airworthiness standards and grant certificates of airworthiness.
3. License pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and flight engineers, and conduct the required examinations and checks.
4. License air traffic controllers.
5. Certify aerodromes and communication, navigation and surveillance facilities.
6. Grant Air Operator Certificates and regulate Indian and foreign air transport services operating to, from, within and over India, including required clearances.
7. Carry out the safety-regulatory and accident-prevention functions stated in Bali, while formal independent accident investigation is handled under the current Indian investigation framework.
8. Process amendments to aviation legislation, Civil Aviation Requirements, Aeronautical Information Circulars and related material, and initiate proposals needed to give effect to international conventions.
9. Coordinate flexible use of airspace by civil and military agencies and interact with ICAO on additional routes through Indian airspace.
10. Monitor aircraft noise and engine emissions with reference to Annex 16 and coordinate with environmental authorities.
11. Promote indigenous aircraft design and manufacture by acting as a catalyst.
12. Approve dangerous-goods training programmes and issue relevant carriage authorisations.

Airports Authority of India

AAI was formed on 1 April 1995 by merging the International Airports Authority of India and National Airports Authority. Bali lists the following principal functions.

1. Design, develop, operate and maintain international and domestic airports and civil enclaves.
2. Control and manage assigned Indian airspace, including accepted responsibilities beyond territorial limits.
3. Construct, modify and manage passenger terminals.
4. Develop and manage cargo terminals.
5. Provide passenger facilities and information systems.
6. Expand and strengthen runways, aprons, taxiways and other operational areas.
7. Provide visual aids.
8. Provide communication and navigation aids, including ILS, DVOR, DME and radar.
9. Provide air traffic services at airports under its jurisdiction.
10. Provide aeronautical information services, including AIP, NOTAM, AIRAC and pre-flight information bulletins.

Responsibility map