The Arab Air Carriers’ Organization (AACO), on behalf of its member Arab airlines, their Chief Executive Officers, and their employees, expresses its absolute condemnation and strongest denunciation of the repeated terrorist attacks targeting civilian airports in the region, most recently the heinous attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, which claimed the lives of a number of innocent people and left hundreds injured.
Targeting civilian airports, which are vital facilities serving humanity and a fundamental pillar of communication among peoples, is not merely an attack on facilities or infrastructure. It is a direct attack on innocent lives and on the safety and security of international civil aviation, as well as a flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of international law and the legal framework established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to protect civil aviation from acts of unlawful interference.
AACO affirms that these reprehensible acts are in blatant contradiction with the relevant international conventions, particularly the 1971 Montreal Convention and its 1988 Supplementary Protocol concerning the suppression of unlawful acts of violence at airports serving international civil aviation, as well as the resolutions of the ICAO Assembly condemning all acts of unlawful interference against civil aviation, regardless of their perpetrators, motives, or the pretexts used to justify them.
Civilian airports are not battlefields, civilian aircraft are not military targets, and passengers and aviation workers are not parties to armed conflicts. Under no circumstances or pretext can endangering their lives, or using civil aviation as a means of pressure, intimidation, or the pursuit of military or political objectives, be justified.
While mourning the innocent victims and expressing its sincere condolences and solidarity to their families, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and its people, and wishing the injured a speedy recovery, AACO emphasizes the need for urgent Arab and international action to prevent the recurrence of these grave attacks.
AACO further stresses that the safety and security of international civil aviation are a collective responsibility that cannot be subject to selectivity or double standards, and that any leniency toward attacks on civil aviation facilities would undermine confidence in the international air transport system and threaten one of the most important foundations of human and economic connectivity among the countries of the world.
The Arab Air Carriers’ Organization, together with the Chief Executive Officers of its member airlines and the hundreds of thousands of people working in the Arab air transport sector, raises one clear and unequivocal voice: Enough attacks on civil aviation, and enough disregard for innocent lives. Protecting airports, aircraft, passengers, and aviation workers is an international duty that can tolerate neither delay nor compromise.
AACO renews its full solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and with all countries whose civilian airports are subjected to such attacks, affirming that the safety and security of civil aviation must remain above all conflicts and disputes.
Arab Air Carriers’ Organization