A global airline and the visionary spirit behind the Chicago Convention

By Haldane Dodd, Executive Director ATAG??

The aviation industry in 2024 is very familiar with the discussion of airline consolidation - the merging of airlines to strengthen themselves as businesses - and we have seen some different models in the world to achieve this. In the United States it tends to take the form of a traditional merger into one company. In Europe three large groups of distinct brands have formed. And the global alliances (Star Alliance, OneWorld and SkyTeam) are another form of business cooperation.??

But if the New Zealand delegate to the 1944 Chicago Conference on International Air Transport had his way, the world of airlines would have evolved very differently. His proposal - supported by Australia - was for the Conference to establish just one single global airline which would be owned and staffed by all the countries that took part - a United Nations of airlines in fact.??

The 1944 Conference that led to the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was pretty extraordinary in many ways: it took place before the Second World War was even finished; it lasted 37 days (perhaps something other UN negotiations could learn from – keep the negotiators in a room until they reach agreement!); and it has created a document - the Chicago Convention - which has stood the test of time.??

But perhaps most extraordinary of all was the spirit in which the Conference was called together.?

With war still raging in Europe, the President of the United States invited delegates from 54 countries to Chicago. In the opening speech of the conference, a letter from President Roosevelt said that “air transport will be the first available means by which we can start to heal the wounds of war and put the world once more on a peacetime basis”. These sentiments were shared by the delegates and reflected in the preamble to the Convention itself: “the future development of international civil aviation can greatly help to create and preserve friendship and understanding among the nations and peoples of the world”.?

Indeed, it is reported that President Roosevelt saw a priority of the development of international air transport the freedom for all countries to be involved. Despite the United States likely coming out of the war with significant military and economic power, there was sensitivity to exploiting that, with the belief this type of dominant geopolitical behaviour had led to war twice in the preceding 50 years. When designing a new global aviation system, Roosevelt believed, all nations should be encouraged to take part in this new form of air connectivity.?

When you think about the way the industry has evolved - new business models, new technology, new challenges and threats - the fact that a document written in the midst of war 80 years ago is still the reference is pretty extraordinary. Annexes and amendments have come, of course. And there are some philosophical ideas which evolved from the Chicago Convention which possibly restrain aviation in a way most other businesses don’t have to think about. Bilateral air services, assigned frequencies of flights between cities or countries, and foreign ownership rules for example add an additional layer of complexity to the business. But in general, the Convention has stood the test of time admirably.???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Although the New Zealand proposal for one global airline didn’t gain much favour from other States and was abandoned as a proposal, it’s an interesting exercise to think how the air transport world would have evolved (or perhaps not evolved) without the brands and national pride that comes along with the colourful tails we see lined up at airports around the world.?