From time to time, it is worth recalling that every day we safely transport some 12 million passengers on 100,000 flights in heavier-than-air machines. It is an incredible achievement when you think about it.

Another enormous task now confronts us that is equally demanding. Sustainability tops the industry agenda alongside safety and all stakeholders in the aviation ecosystem are committed to an aspirational target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

And I am pleased to announce that we are also launching the inaugural Airspace Asia Pacific event. This will take place 9-11 December 2025, at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.

Asia Pacific will witness extraordinary growth in the coming years and so it is vital that we look specifically at this region and its incredible variety of conditions, services and business models. If we get it right in Asia Pacific, the chances are we can get it right across the world.

So, the next time you fly, remember what a triumph of ingenuity it is. Remember that every aviation stakeholder plays its part and know that together we will build a truly sustainable aviation industry.

CANSO is determined to play its part in every aspect of aviation’s sustainable future. All our initiatives carry the seed of this idea. In a programme like GreenATM, our ambition is obvious. 

But ensuring our industry continues to thrive in a responsible manner touches every aspect of our work. For example, we are focusing on further developing our Tomorrow’s Voices initiative with the aim of integrating and learning more from the next generation of aviation professionals.

Our new academia membership is equally vital. By working together with academic institutions across the world we can access the latest innovations and thinking. And in turn our academic members will be able to ensure their work answers practical problems that our ANSPs confront every day.

That is also the rationale behind our award-winning Airspace World event – giving the air traffic management community the tools it needs to solve our collective challenges, including sustainability. In 2025, we will bring you an ever bigger, better show, from 13-15 May in Lisbon, Portugal.

To give you an idea of the scale of the challenge, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that in a “business-as-usual” scenario the industry will emit more than 20 gigatons of CO2 up to 2050.

Abating that amount of carbon will not be easy. To begin with, aviation relies heavily on fossil fuels and alternative power sources are limited. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are an exciting proposition but supply lags demand by a considerable margin. SAF production needs to increase a thousand-fold from 2023 levels and governments must provide the right policy framework to make this attainable.

Carbon offsetting will also play its part, but many offsets are now coming under scrutiny. And such new technologies as carbon capture and hydrogen are still in their infancy.

So, am I confident that we will get to net zero by 2050? Absolutely! Because that is what aviation does – it overcomes seemingly insurmountable challenges.

We should not forget, though, that sustainability is not solely about the environment and reducing carbon emissions. Sustainable air transport growth covers many different elements, from finance to human resources.

Staff shortages were exacerbated by the pandemic, for example, and air navigation service providers (ANSP) are working hard to rectify the situation.

One part of the solution is to embrace diversity. The CANSO resolution on diversity and inclusion at our recent AGM in Baku, Azerbaijan, calls for concrete actions, including measurable diversity goals. The aim is to eliminate biases in recruitment and development and ensure every ANSP develops an equitable workplace, which in turn will create the best possible results for the organisation and the sustainable growth we crave.

Aviation is an industry with a proud history of overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges.