The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) has developed a new International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Health Corridor (PHC) workshop as part of an implementation package (iPACK) that was recently launched online by ICAO.

As part of ICAO's broader resource mobilisation efforts, IBAC offered to lead a group of experts drawn from a wide range of air transport specialists to develop the curriculum and content for a workshop in support of the Public Health Corridor iPack, which will provide training to national authorities around the world to help re-open international air travel.

Key contributions to the development of the iPACK workshop included significant instruction design leadership provided by TrainingPort.net, a Vancouver-based business aviation training provider, and medical expertise from MedAire, a worldwide provider of fully integrated travel health and safety solutions.

IBAC director general Kurt Edwards comments: “This is an opportunity for industry to advise regulators and policy makers around the world on how best to facilitate the maintenance and return of air transport in a safe, efficient manner in line with agreed public health and operational guidance. We coordinated subject matter experts from nearly 20 travel related businesses and associations to gather their input for the workshop content. Many thanks to the TrainingPort.net team for its instructional development expertise that it voluntarily provided to design the curriculum and to Dr. Paulo Alves of MedAire for his aeromedical expertise. We are grateful to all the organisations and individuals involved in this effort, as well as to ICAO for having the confidence in us to lead the development of this important resource.”

TrainingPort.net CEO Bryan Barratt adds: “TrainingPort is proud to have partnered with IBAC to contribute the online training portion to the ICAO Public Health Corridor iPack project. It was an honour to work with numerous relevant industry subject matter experts to design and produce such important content and to collectively work toward getting the world travelling safely again.”

MedAire's global director of aviation health Paulo M. Alves remarks: “This new training curriculum will empower states to safely reopen borders after careful risk assessments and will undoubtedly contribute to the rebound of aviation on a global scale. It was a privilege to work with IBAC director, ICAO liaison, Andy Meyer, on this project. His leadership and the expertise that the IBAC and TrainingPort.net teams brought to the table made this a truly rewarding experience." 

IBAC is a partner of the ICAO Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) programme, a voluntary cross-sectoral, multi-organisational collaboration programme managed by ICAO supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to ICAO, WHO and IBAC, CAPSCA includes representatives of the airlines, manufacturers, air navigation services providers, airports, key aviation authorities and key national public health authorities. CAPSCA provided the necessary medical, public health and operational expertise to the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) for guidance documents on a coordinated recovery of global air transport from the COVID19 pandemic, ICAO Doc 10152 Testing and Cross-border Risk Management Measures Manual, as well as the concept of public health corridors to ensure the continuation or resumption of international air travel. IBAC contributed to the development of the public health corridor concept and coordinated the development of parts of Doc 10152, working with a team of CAPSCA experts.