ICAO Legal Summit to be held in Seoul from Tuesday

Incheon International Airport Thursday. [YONHAP]

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Legal Summit will be held for three days in Seoul from Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

ICAO, which is a specialized agency of United Nations, has 193 members.

The meeting comes as the world moves from pandemic mode and travel begins to return to normal. It also comes as the war in Ukraine rages and some airspaces remain closed as a result.

Discussions on climate change and drones and other forms of urban air mobility are also likely to be held.

Incheon International Airport will be introducing its Green New Deal strategy at the meeting.

The ministry stressed that this year's seminar is the first to be held face-to-face since the pandemic started.

Korea has been hosting the seminar, which is held every three years, since its inception in 2006.

It is also the first seminar in which Juan Carlos Salazzar, ICAO secretary general, is attending since he was appointed in August last year.

The international meeting comes just after a Korea government announcement of plans to increase the number of international departures and arrivals to 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

"This is the 70th year since Korea joined the ICAO in 1952," said Kim Yong-seok, the ministry's director general for air navigation policy. "When Korea joined the ICAO at the end of the Korea War, we were one of the poorest countries and received aid from the world."

"Today we are an advanced country in aviation as we rank in the world's top five in terms of aviation transport and have a world-class airport."

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]