The second Middle East ATC Global Conference and Exhibition, the premier meeting place for the international air traffic management community, has opened in Abu Dhabi.

The two day conference and exhibition, which opened today (December 13) is hosted by the GCAA, and is being held in the Beach Rotana hotel.

Omar Bin Ghaleb, deputy director general of GCAA who inaugurated the event, pointed out that Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre has been recently rewarded the prestigious Sheikh Khalifa Award as the country’s best technical project.

“Nevertheless, we keep improving on it. We have upgraded our system to handle – at the same time – both the new ICAO flight plan format and the existing format,” Bin Ghaleb said.

“We have also installed a fourth ATC display system, purely for research and development; and opened the Al Ain approach-radar to the benefit of both military and civilian airspace users.”

“In the field of research, we have completed the first year of automated navigation performance monitoring for an RNAV 1 route and obtained some 40,000 measurements. This constitutes the largest set of data held anywhere in the world and permits us to draw conclusions about actual navigation performance to the benefit of airspace development,” he added.

Regarding deriving significant benefits without jeopardising safety, Bin Ghaleb said: “We can open more routes and thereby increase capacity, shorten routes and save track miles; and reduce impact on the environment.”

“As our airlines expand their routes network, we also need to stretch out to the world and exchange views and know-how. The main channel for this is ICAO, where we were honoured by majority support in the UAE’s recent re- election to ICAO Council. There are indeed several more avenues, like ACAC and IATA, where the UAE actively participates in the on-going work,” he continued.

“In the age of globalisation, those who fail to reach out will be left behind and – as the name indicates – we see ATC Global as a platform for global outreach that is consistent with our vision,” Bin Ghaleb concluded. – TradeArabia News Service