An Important Month for CANSO's Middle East Region

March was a very busy and important month for CANSO's Middle East region, with several of our Middle East Members participating in, and actively contributing to, CANSO's Operations Conference. Several Middle East Members also attended the ATC Global exhibition in Amsterdam.

ATC Global
GCAA of the UAE and GACA of KSA met at the CANSO stand during ATC Global to discuss and agree concrete next steps in the development of this vital CANSO Region. Following the successful 2nd CANSO Middle East ANSP Conference in January, members of the region will meet in Abu Dhabi on 7-8 April for the first Middle East Coordination Meeting, kindly hosted by the GCAA of the UAE. At this meeting, delegates will work to agree on Work Programme priorities and set Seminar and Conference dates for 2010 and beyond. All parties agreed that CANSO provides the platform the Region needs “to work together, improve together and lead by example”.

Operations Conference
At the CANSO Operations Conference, Hassan Karam, Director Air Navigation Services at GCAA (third from left), became a member of the CANSO Operational Steering Committee. In his role, Hassan will ensure that Middle East interests will be taken into account in the OSC workplan.

During the Conference, Hassan showcased major developments in the UAE, including the benefits of various Airspace optimisation programmes executed by the UAE with neighboring States. Conference participants could not agree more when he explained that in order to become a 'value contributing element in the Aviation Value Chain' ANSPs need to work together, learn from each other and provide measurable and concrete benefits to their customers.

Another Middle East perspective came from Ibrahim Al-Jabri of GACA of KSA, who facilitated an open discussion forum on “Sharing ANSP and Industry Best Practice”

Dan Smiley, CANSO's Operations Programme Manager is delighted about the involvement and engagement of colleagues from the Middle East and he looks forward very much towards working with them. He will attend a Seminar, planned to take place in May, which will focus important institutional and operational issues.