The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks with a renewed commitment to strengthening global aviation security, warning that emerging threats such as cyberattacks and drone misuse continue to test the international system.

In a joint statement issued Friday, ICAO Council President Toshiyuki Onuma and Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar said the 2,977 people killed in the attacks, along with countless others affected since, must be honoured by ensuring such an atrocity is never repeated.

The two officials noted that within two weeks of the 2001 attacks, 169 countries had gathered at ICAO's Montreal headquarters and unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the use of aircraft as weapons and committing to international cooperation against terrorism targeting civil aviation.

That response eventually produced the 2010 Beijing Convention and Protocol, which criminalised new forms of attack, including biological and chemical threats, and targeted the financiers and organisers behind them, according to the statement. The treaties also strengthened cross-border cooperation on investigation and extradition and addressed early cyber vulnerabilities, ICAO said.

Despite the progress, the organisation cautioned that legal frameworks have not kept pace uniformly across its membership. While security treaties from the 1970s have achieved near-universal ratification, ICAO said fewer than a third of its member states have ratified the Beijing instruments, a gap it described as a major focus of its current advocacy efforts.

The statement pointed to United Nations Security Council resolutions requiring states to work with ICAO on airport and flight security, including the collection of Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record data to track terrorist travel. Officials said they are now extending similar cooperation to counter the terrorist use of unmanned aircraft systems.

Onuma and Salazar identified cybersecurity, insider threats and drone misuse as among the "novel regulatory and operational challenges" facing the sector, alongside navigation interference, supply chain breaches and risks stemming from conflict zones.

The officials acknowledged that not all states are equally equipped to meet international standards, warning that security gaps in one jurisdiction can have ripple effects across the global system. ICAO said it continues to conduct mandatory audits of member states through its Universal Security Audit Programme while offering capacity-building support to address shortfalls.

Looking ahead, ICAO said its strategic vision for 2050 aims for zero aviation fatalities and net zero carbon emissions as flight volumes continue to rise. Achieving zero fatalities from unlawful interference, the officials said, would require sustained cooperation among governments, industry and international bodies including the United Nations.

"Achieving this goal will be the highest honour we can offer the victims of 9/11 and of all attacks against civil aviation worldwide," Onuma and Salazar said.

Source: PR