U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Remarks at the 80th Anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization

CHICAGO, IL – This week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg delivered remarks at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation – also known as the Chicago Convention – which created the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO is a United Nations specialized agency that develops policies and standards for global air transport and serves as a global forum for international civil aviation. 

See the full transcript of Secretary Buttigieg’s remarks below: 

Good evening and thank you so much Commissioner [Jamie] Rhee for that kind introduction, and congratulations on the extraordinary work taking place in Chicago's airports. You and Mayor [Brandon] Johnson have a great deal to be proud of. And as I said when President Biden made me do this job, don't let anyone tell you O’Hare isn’t romantic.  

I’m so pleased to be with you. Mr. [Steve] Morrisey, thank you for reminding us of the significance of this evening. Thank you and congratulations, of course, to President Sciacchitano and the Council that you lead – to General Secretary [Juan Carlos] Salazar and the extraordinary staff and team that you lead.  

And to all of the distinguished Ministers and Directors General and leaders who make up the beating heart of ICAO. Thank you for your commitment, your leadership, your presence, and the opportunity to join you this evening. 

I consider my role as U.S. Transportation Secretary to be the best job in my country’s government. Looking after all means of transportation, the proverbial trains, planes, and automobiles. Not to mention our maritime sector and increasingly commercial space travel.  

And all of the forms of transportation that I have the privilege of working on, though I think none combines everyday utility with breathtaking innovation like civil aviation. 

Joining you on this occasion, especially doing so in Chicago, I confess to viewing things through the eyes not only of a policymaker, or even of a very frequent flyer, but those also of the young boy who marveled as his father pointed out the window with earnest joy and pride at all the different aircraft visible from our plane taxiing on the tarmac at O’Hare, a little turboprop taking us to connect to the bigger jumbo jet that would take us overseas to visit our family in Malta, the nation that he immigrated from.  

Aviation makes so many things possible, from family reunification to grand adventures and romances, to daily or weekly commutes, the delivery of needed goods, and the foundation of millions of careers. 

It is imperative that this sector continue to advance, that it flourishes, and that it do so, at once boldly and safely. 

After all, the only achievement more remarkable than the fact of human flight itself, is the fact that doing so has become the safest form of travel that we know. The former, the fact of flight, is a marvel of technology. But the latter, the safety record, is a marvel of collective action, responsible choices, policy and regulation and coordination and standards that is sometimes as unglamorous as it gets, but it makes everything else possible. 

And this institution, ICAO and the Chicago Convention that gave rise to it, are part of the very foundation of that institutional marvel of humanity. 

It’s 80 years to the day since leaders from around the world gathered right here at the invitation of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Visionaries who saw even in the midst of the Second World War how aviation could be so much more than the venue for combat. 

But they knew that for civil aviation to meet its potential, it would require global standards that could adapt rapidly to changing technologies and give the traveling public confidence in the safety of civil aviation everywhere. And by the event’s close, 52 states had signed the document creating the International Civil Aviation Organization that we celebrate today. 

It was a major advance beyond the International Commission for Air Navigation that had been established in 1919. And a milestone in a tradition that you could argue begins in 1783 when the municipal authorities of Paris were sorting out what to do to adapt to the Montgoflier brothers’ balloon demonstration. So, we were part of that tradition as well. And as long as humanity has taken to the skies, there has been a need for cooperation, consistency, and communication – especially among international partners – on how to keep our spaces safe and secure. 

And ICAO has spent eight decades doing exactly that. 

The delegates who gathered here all those years ago sought to build mutual understanding and trust amid growing economic interdependence. 

And in the 80 years since, ICAO has grown to 193 members united in a shared commitment to make aviation safer, more secure, more sustainable, and more equitable.     

More than 12,000 SARPs, Standards and Recommended Practices, have been built through strong scientific and technical foundations supporting broad international consensus. And together, member nations have created regulations and protocols that enable common standards for everything from telecommunications and navigation technology, to aircraft personnel and airport employee licensing, to how we manage cargo. 

Now, civil aviation has become so vital to our way of life that is difficult to imagine it any other way. And yet imagination is very much required of all of us now, as we gather here in celebration of a milestone anniversary, with pressing needs that call on us to focus as ICAO’s leadership is on to the next 80 years – and what it means for the aviation sector. 

In keeping with the themes of this event – “Safe Skies and Sustainability” – I want to first mention this core topic that is of paramount importance to the growth of the aviation sector: which is safety.   

It will never cease to be an astonishing fact that the safest way to travel is to enter a metal tube with dozens or hundreds of other people and be propelled through the sky by the combustion of highly flammable liquids, by the way, miles above Earth’s surface at nearly the speed of sound.   

Aviation is safer than ever, but that isn't an achievement to be taken lightly – or to be taken for granted. It takes continuous work and vigilance. 

And no matter whose airspace they're in, passengers expect complete safety and security. It’s why the United States strongly supports ICAO’s Global Air Navigation Plan and its Global Aviation Safety Plan, and we released our own National Aviation Safety Plan in 2022. We’ve encouraged states to endorse the global plans and create their own national plans as well to elevate the level and the coordination of safety across airspace. And we also support the Global Aviation Security Plan as a living document, one that evolves with the day's challenges to ensure it’s always fit for purpose.

Likewise, pilots and crew members expect safety and security in their vital roles. They are at the core of the global air transportation system, and they deserve the tools, the resources, and sensible common standards for treatment to make sure that they're protected in the essential work that they do. To that point, I want to reaffirm our commitment to the global standard of fully staffed flight decks and the use of technology tools to support the safe operation of flights, not to replace essential crew members. 

Safety is always our North Star, as it was for the delegates here in 1944. But now, of course, we must also adapt to considerations that were not even in the consciousness of those delegates, like the importance of sustainability. 

Transportation emissions are among the greatest contributors to climate change. And the aviation sector is also facing the acute impact of increasingly extreme weather. 

We have seen runways buckle under extreme heat, coastal airports flooded by torrential rains, and passengers’ safety and comfort threatened by increasing turbulence.

Aviation leaders worldwide recognize the urgency of this challenge and are working to be part of the solution. In 2021, President Biden set our target for the United States: net zero emissions for U.S. aviation no later than 2050. When I joined so many of you in Montreal for the Assembly in the fall of 2022, member states embraced a long-term aspirational goal with that same target, and together we strengthened ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation—or CORSIA—which will catalyze the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel across the world.

For our part, President Biden launched the United States Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge: an initiative that focuses on fuels that are at least 50 percent lower emitting on a life cycle basis than fossil fuels. The Grand Challenge has a goal of scaling up domestic SAF production to 3 billion gallons by 2030 and 35 billion by 2050, enough to power all U.S. aviation. And the President’s Inflation Reduction Act created tax credits and a grant program to accelerate the development and deployment of SAF.   

This past August, we announced nearly $300 million for dozens of projects that are putting us nearer to our global decarbonization goals while also fostering economic growth and rural development at home. In fact, not far from where we are standing here in Chicago, one of those grants aims to grow SAF distribution and storage capacity at a facility in Bedford Park. So facilities like this matter not only to our skies, but to our communities, like those in the American heartland where they are being built and where they are employing people. 

Just a few years ago, in 2021, the U.S. was producing and importing five million gallons of SAF. Data collected through October of 2024 show how that number grew to nearly 103 million gallons, which translates to over 500,000 metric tons of CO2 reduction. 

In addition, I'm happy to share that, as of today, the U.S. has submitted to ICAO an update to our Climate Action Plan that will continue this progress, further reduce emissions, and make our skies cleaner. 

Our aviation sustainability work has made an important difference, and it is of vital importance that this work continues throughout and beyond this decade. 

Together, we are building stronger and more resilient economies powered by safer cleaner air travel while keeping our relentless focus on safety as the first priority. 

As I wrap things up. I want to take a moment to reflect on ICAO’s choice wisely to embrace the principle of “No Country Left Behind.”

Because humans experience distance mainly not in terms of miles but in terms of minutes, it is all but literally true that the widespread advent of civil aviation has made the world smaller and has made us nearer to one another. It must have taken great vision for the delegates here in 1944 to think past national boundaries and imagine the connections and the interdependence that aviation would bring.

Yet they demonstrated that vision, aligning to make sure that the various elements of their national aviation systems and policies added up into a whole greater than the sum of its parts ever could have been. And the resulting Chicago Convention created a lasting foundation for peace and prosperity in global air transportation – and secured its place in the history of aviation. 

I know that my time as Secretary of Transportation is drawing to a close. And I know that our world continues to face evolving challenges. 

So let me end with this: a strong global air transportation system depends on our fidelity to the commitments that we have made to one another, the trust that we have built, and the extraordinary potential we have unlocked by means of that trust. This is the real significance of the rules, protocols and standards established by this body and by our member states. As we go forward, we must all remember the strength of our commitments and values, remain ready to support other nations, and seek always the basis for common ground.

The work we do together, as this body collectively has made possible for 80 years, will continue to open up great possibility for all of us in the skies and closer to home. 

So, I ask you to join me in congratulating ICAO on an extraordinary 80 years – and in wishing one another strength and energy to deliver so many accomplishments that are still to come. 

Thank you again for the chance to join you.