Special Features
UAE Witnesses 337500 Air Traffic Movements In H1
The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) announced that air traffic movements in the UAE amounted to 337497 movements by the end of the first half of the year 2011, which represents an 8.25% growth over 311803 movements in the same period last year. In its report, GCAA indicated that the total air movements in June 2011 totaled 56291, up 8.2% compared to 52039 movements during the corresponding month of 2010.The June movements report issued by GCAA also showed that the average daily movement of the month was 1876 air traffic movements per day. This represents an increase of 8.1% in comparison to an average of 1735 daily movements in June 2010, and is equal to the daily average in May 2011.
Dubai ranked first in terms of the number of air traffic movements during the past month, with a total of 24974 movements, or 44.4% of the total air traffic in the UAE. Over flights came second with 12457 movements, or 22.1% of the total, while Abu Dhabi came third with 8205 movements representing 14.6% of the total UAE air traffic movements. With a total of 4980 movements, Sharjah came fourth in the list, representing 8.8% of the total UAE air traffic movements.
According to the report, local flights among UAE airports came fifth, amounting to 4650 movements, or 8.2% of the total traffic, while air movements at the Fujairah International Airport stood at 355, and Al Ain Airport witnessed 181 movements. Ras Al Khaimah International Airport saw a total of 269 air movements, while Jabal Ali Airport’s movements totaled 220 over the month. The four airports together contributed 1.8% of the total air traffic movements in the UAE during June.
Commenting on the report, Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), said: "the UAE is constantly putting huge efforts to provide the best environment that enables continuous growth in the civil aviation sector, which is a testament on the stability and attractiveness of the country despite all the challenges that the region and the whole world are witnessing. With constant improvements in performance levels, efforts are underway to provide a more harmonious regulatory and organizational environment that goes inline with the current developments, especially in terms of environment protection." "Last month, the GCAA hosted the first workshop to be organized by ICAO in the Middle East to set plans to limit carbon emissions in the region, which will have a great impact in reducing those emissions from fleets and air traffic operations, and accordingly enhances handling the environment. The Authority seeks to implement several plans in this regard, in cooperation with international and regional organizations," he added.
"Meanwhile, the authority is focusing on attracting and educating national human resources to work in the various aspects of the civil aviation sector" The report also indicated results of air operations during June 2011, where the GCAA completed 14 transactions for licensing aircraft maintenance companies, as well as 6 aircraft registration certifications, and 55 airworthiness certificate transactions. The authority has further conducted 24 inspection and audits, 6 aircraft modification transactions, and issued 3 air operator certificates and 20 simulator certificates. Aircraft category and simulator test permissions amounted to 14, while foreign aircraft inspections stood at 7 during the month. Three air operators were suspended, and for (ROSI) system, the authority accepted 72 aviation incident reports, 60 of which were forwarded.
As for security and infrastructure operations, GCAA conducted 13 inspections and audits at airports, cargo and aircraft companies training institutes and other facilities, and prepared 229 air navigation fact reports at all the UAE airports as well as the Sheikh Zayed Center. Furthermore, the authority held 49 internal and external meetings to discuss security and infrastructure with several civil aviation companies and organizations in the country.
GCAA Also issued 13 reports regarding operational permissions at airports, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah, Al Bateen and Al Maktoum airports, and organized two emergency training sessions at Dubai International Airport and Fujairah International Airport. The authority issued 6 infrastructure safety and security violation tickets, 6 of which to airline operators, while renewing 5 licenses for cargo and shipping companies specializing in dangerous materials.
As for crew licensing, GCAA issued 76 new crew licenses, renewed 177 licenses, issued 87 temporary permits, issued two letters of authentication for airline license data, completed 44 type additions to licenses, issued 11 replacement licenses, thereby taking the total number of crew licensing transactions in June 2011 to 397.
As for aircraft maintenance engineers licensing, GCAA renewed 34 licenses, completed 218 type additions to licenses, issued one temporary permit and 8 letters of authentication for license data while rejecting issuance of 6 licenses. This brings the total number of aircraft maintenance engineers licensing transactions last month to 267.
Regarding aeromedical activities, the report indicated that GCAA issued and renewed 283 medical certificates in various qualified categories, appointed 7 medical committees, approved 3 decisions by medical committees, and carried out 34 transactions while temporarily suspending 8 licenses and finally suspending one. As such, aeromedical related transactions in June 2011 stood at 336.
Further, concerning air traffic controller transactions, the report showed that GCAA issued 2 new licenses, renewed 4 licenses. As for urgent service transactions, there were 468 crew transactions, 16 aeromedical transactions, 59 aircraft maintenance engineer transactions, which took the total number of urgent serv and 32 aircraft crew card transactions. As such, urgent service transactions stood at 692.e transactions to 543, in addition to several other related activities including inspections and audits, 391 crew card transactions and 212 tests.
Regarding support services, the authority organized 5 external courses that enrolled 14 trainees, in addition to 5 internal courses for 52 trainees, where GCAA sought to seal agreements with several training and specialized centers to raise the efficiency levels and capacities of human resources in the sector.
On another note, in terms of air transport memoranda of understanding (MoUs), GCAA signed a final air transport agreement with Romania during June 2011, while it held discussions on the matter with the Chinese ambassador to the UAE, and signed a cooperation agreement with the Civil Aviation Agency in Montenegro to strengthen cooperation and enhance air traffic regulation and improve air traffic safety control.
In this regard, the GCAA coordinated training courses for the members of the Arab Civil Aviation Commission (ACAC) with the Technical Training Academy Center, where employees from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Beirut attended the First Line Maintenance Safety course, enacting an MoU signed with ACAC. The authority also coordinated training sessions held by Mr. Iglend Bhar Mickerim Begko from the Albanian Embassy in the UAE at the Gulf Center for Aviation Studies in Abu Dhabi, held on safety and security issues and titled BASIC 123.
During June 2011, the GCAA received 29 training applications from various ACAC member countries. Administrative procedures to activate the MoU signed with ACAC have been accomplished.
The report concluded with an indication of the UAE representative office at the ICAO and its success in securing the country’s participation at a key workshop that will be held on alternative fuels from October 16th to 18th, 2011.
New