SHAPING THE FUTURE OF ICAO An interview with ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar

In 2023 we began an ambitious three-year journey to ensure ICAO is fit for the futureOur goal is to become more results-driven with a people-focused culture and way of working.

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We want to be transparent, accountable, efficient, and value-guided, and ensure that we are innovative and agile. We are at the halfway point of this journey, we wanted to sit down with ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar to discuss the progress so far.

Q: Mr. Salazar, thank you for joining us. To begin, we should probably ask why you decided to embark on this transformation journey?

JCS: The aviation industry is facing unparalleled changes and challenges that are driven by the unprecedented speed of innovation, the heightened awareness, and the need to improve resilience in the wake of global public health emergencies, and the climate crisis, which is, in fact, just one of the environmental challenges we face. We launched this journey to equip ICAO with the capabilities and capacities it needs to tackle the issues and opportunities more effectively, to ensure we can unite and lead the aviation community towards a safe, secure, and sustainable future.

Q: ICAO has named this its “Transformational Objective.” How would you describe the overall progress towards it so far?

JCS: We’ve seen a lot of early achievements in all areas: people and culture, digital and operations. This reflects our collective passion, hard work, and dedication to our vision for the organization. Our first 12 months were focused on setting the foundations. We now look forward to seeing more tangible results from implementation, and soon. We are going to accelerate our efforts, with the changes bringing exciting opportunities for growth, innovation, and personal development for ICAO personnel. It’s about building upon the spirit of collaboration and excellence that defines the Organization worldwide.

Q: What key achievements or milestones that have been reached at this halfway point?