The air transport system has reached an unprecedented level of safety,making it by far the safest means of mass transportation in the world. This collective achievement is resulting from constant efforts and improvements made by the entire aviation community over the past decades. However, given the expected growth of aviation in the future, improving, and even maintaining such a high level of safety requires now a different approach of safety.

Aviation safety is at the core of ICAO’s fundamental objectives. The organization is constantly striving, in close collaboration with the entire air transport community, to improve aviation’s successful safety performance while maintaining a high level of capacity and efficiency. This is achieved through a series of action plans, including the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) and the development of new comprehensive Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) (Annex 19 to the Chicago Convention) promoting a systemic approach of safety including the implementation of a Safety Management System. It also comes with initiatives in the field of education and training, under the auspices of the ICAO Global Aviation Training (GAT) Office.

The French Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC), based in Toulouse, has been involved in educating a wide spectrum of aviation professionals – including airline pilots and air traffic controllers – to the benefit of the worldwide air transport community for over 70 years. ENAC’s teaching programs, from short courses to PhD, are permanently kept up to date thanks to its partnerships with authorities, companies and research laboratories employing their 22,000 graduates. Among many other fields, ENAC has thus developed a strong expertise in aviation safety over time.