Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

The International Civil Aviation Organization expects to issue a second-phase Council on Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) report late this month or in early November that will address uniform practices for Covid-19 testing for airline passengers, ICAO officials revealed Monday during the Flight Safety Foundation’s annual International Air Safety Summit. Aviation groups including the International Air Transport Association (IATA) hope new guidelines established by ICAO will act as a catalyst to harmonize testing protocols around the globe, answering calls to do away with demand-sapping quarantine requirements.

 


Participating in the summit’s first panel discussion along with Airport Council International (ACI) director-general Luis Felipe de Oliveira and Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) head Simon Hocquard, IATA director-general Alexandre de Juniac praised the CART for its “well managed and exceptionally fast” reaction to the crisis following its establishment by ICAO in late April. In fact, it took about a month for the task force to publish its first set of guidelines and, although some raised questions about when and under what authority airlines and airports would adhere to the CART recommendations, all three of the panelists at the safety summit expressed satisfaction with the eventual outcome.

 


ICAO’s plan to release its phase-two set of guidelines for testing must have come as a welcome development in particular for IATA, which in a joint statement just last week with ACI Europe and Airlines for Europe complained of what they called a failure by the EU to pursue a uniform standard of testing to replace quarantines. Last Tuesday, European affairs ministers from EU states adopted a European Council&nbsp;recommendation on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement. But the industry groups said that the move&nbsp;falls “far short” of what they&nbsp;consider its mandate: “encouraging a restart of travel through effective coordination and proportionate, predictable, and non-discriminatory measures.”

 


“These shortcomings are a political failure,” the groups said. “The inability of the council to go beyond shallow coordination and establish a truly harmonized and workable framework is now beyond any doubt.”

 


In contrast, the ICAO task force proved a success in realizing its intent to coordinate action among aviation “stakeholders,” if not governments. “If we have the safest industry in terms of mass transportation it is not by chance,” said De Juniac. “It is because we are safety maniacs and we are implementing with rigorous discipline, which is very strict with no compromise based on a single standard…The point is to have a standard that is permanently reviewed, updated, and improved by the competent authorities and is implemented by all the actors around the table, whether it’s the NSPs, the airlines, the airports, everybody.”

News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

ICAO Task Force Set To Issue Covid Testing Protocols

The Council on Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) expects to issue guidelines on testing for Covid in late October or early November.   

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News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

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New developments at airports including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

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News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

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News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

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