The Postal History of ICAO

THE GROWTH OF ICAO

On 6 June 1945, the required 26 States, including each of the 20 States elected to the Council, had accepted the Interim Agreement on International Civil Aviation. Thus, as per Article 1 - Section 1 of the latter Agreement, the Provisional Organization (PICAO) was born, within six months after the closing of the Chicago Convention.

On 5 March 1947, Spain was the 26^th state to deposit, with the Government of the USA (which serves as the depositary of the Chicago Convention), its instrument of ratification to the Chicago Convention. Consequently, this Convention came into force on 4 April 1947 (i.e. 30 days later), among the states having thus ratified.

ICAO’s success is evidenced by the dynamic and sustained increases in the number of States adhering to its Convention on International Civil Aviation.

Year	Number of Contracting States
May 1946	8
March 1947	26
May 1948	48
1949	56
1954	65
1957	70
1960	80
1962	93
1964	107
1967	116
1971	120
1975	132
1978	143
1982	150
1994	182
2008	190
2011	191
2017	192
2019	193

However, two factors largely contributed to ICAO’s growth in terms of Member States:

The emancipation in Africa, especially between 1960 and 1962. New countries were created by the decolonization; in a few years, 23 new States joined ICAO; and
The breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (in the 1990s) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (starting from December 1991) led to the emergence of new States, which joined ICAO.

Recently, three States brought the total number of Member States to 193:

South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011 after over two decades of civil war between North and South Sudan. It became the 191st member of ICAO on 10 November 2011, 30 days after the notification of adherence was received, on 11 October 2011.

Tuvalu became the 192^nd Member State of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) following its official adherence to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). ICAO was advised of the development by the Government of the United States of America. Tuvalu deposited its notification of adherence to the Convention on 19 October 2017, and its ICAO Member State status became effective thirty days after on 18 November 2017.

On 3 November 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence by the United Kingdom. Dominica became the 193^rd Member State of ICAO following its official adherence to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention). Dominica deposited its notification of adherence to the Convention on 14 March 2019, and its ICAO Member State status became effective thirty days after on 13 April 2019. ICAO was advised of the development by the Government of the United States of America, which serves as the depositary of the Chicago Convention. ICAO Member States were advised separately of the development via a State Letter. ICAO membership will be particularly important for the development of Dominica’s tourism sector, as air transport and tourism are major and highly synergistic economic sectors. This is illustrated by the fact that, at the global level, 57 per cent of international tourists travel to and from their destinations by air. The combined contribution to the world GDP of these two sectors is in fact close to 14 per cent. Significant growth in air services and tourism is forecast, which represents a particularly important opportunity for island States like Dominica. Like the other states in the Caribbean, Dominica will receive crucial support from ICAO’s North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACC) Regional Office, enabling it to thoroughly identify and benefit from the opportunities presented by its ICAO membership, and participate fully in regional and global aviation planning going forward.

In 1945, the air transport industry carried nine million passengers to the limited destinations available to it at that time. As of 2014, that number has grown to more than 3.3 billion passengers travelling on scheduled commercial international and domestic operations across a very extensive global network (up from 3.1B in 2013). These are astounding statistics and ICAO has proudly contributed to them with the development of a unified global community which now provides reliable and affordable air travel to citizens and business everywhere in the world.

In 2023, 4.4 billion passengers were carried by the world's airlines (1.8 billion international passengers and 2.6 billion domestic passengers). The estimate for 2024 is 4.9 billion passengers.

As of April 2022, 193 countries are Members of ICAO. The only non-Contracting States are the Holy See and Liechtenstein.

Several countries issued stamps to commemorate their admission to ICAO.

Republic of Korea - 11 December 1962

10^th Anniversary of admission to ICAO

First correct appearance of the ICAO first official emblem

(adopted by the 10^th Session of the Assembly, held in Caracas in June-July 1956).

See more information at the following link: Korea 1962.

Republic of Korea - 11 December 1977 - 25th Anniversary of admission to ICAO.

See more information at the following link: Korea 1977.

Brunei - 30 April 1986

Admission to International Organizations:

WMO (26 December 1984) - ITU (19 November 1984)

UPU (15 January 1985) - ICAO (3 January 1985)

The four stamps are attached to opposite sides of a piece of gutter paper that depicts the National flag of Brunei. See more information at the following link: Brunei 1986.

Albania - 19 October 1990 - Admission to ICAO

The cover shows Albania’s national flag, the world map, a French Aérospatiale Sud-Est SE 210 Caravelle aircraft, and a runway of flags of countries having main air corridors/routes linking Albania with the rest of the word.