Rabat-The Arab Civil Aviation Organization, in partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization-Cairo office, and the International Air Transport Association, organized a "videoconference" on August 13, 2020, from 09: 00-11: 00 a.m. UTC.
The meeting, which comes within the framework of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization´s commitment to coordinate and cooperate with international and regional organizations working in the field of civil aviation in the background of the emerging Corona crisis (COVID-19), was attended by 53 participants from 13 countries and 4 regional and international organizations (ACAO, IATA, ICAO, IFATCA).
The virtual meeting was opened by Engineer / Mohamed Rejeb, Navigation and Air Safety Expert on behalf of His Excellency Eng / Abdenbi Manar, Director General of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization, Mr. Sida Proutis, Representative of the International Air Transport Association, and Mr. Radwan Al-Issawi, Regional Officer for Aviation Information Management at the regional office of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Cairo. Participants were welcomed and thanked for accepting the invitation to join the remote meeting.
During this meeting, it was emphasized that the resumption of operations in a safe, secure, sustainable and orderly manner can only be achieved by the concerted efforts of all aviation stakeholders. It was also stressed that close and continuous cooperation is beneficial for both information exchange and a coordinated global response appropriate to all countries, regions and stakeholders.
Therefore, this meeting represents an important and useful framework to enable airlines, represented by the International Air Transport Association, to highlight the challenges and emerging issues related to overflight permissions and to propose recommendations and concrete actions.
The meeting aims primarily to notify the audience of the advancements related to the implementation of the work assigned to the aviation sector recovery working group established at the level of the International Civil Aviation Organization in the Middle East Region (RPTF) as well as the four technical tracks emanating from it, especially Track No. 4 related to Air Navigation Services and Air Traffic Management (WS4): ANS / ATM), whilst providing an overview of the challenges related to authorizing overflights and agreeing on the necessary procedures to ensure that these permissions are granted efficiently in line with the 1944 Chicago Convention and the basic principles of international law.
During this meeting, visual presentations were made by the representative of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the representative of the International Air Transport Association, and the representative of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization. These presentations were followed by a panel discussion that focused mainly on the extent to which countries´ support the concept of "File n Fly" and potential motions to improve this concept, as well as on the difficulties and challenges facing the issuance of overflight permissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that the meeting of Civil Aviation Authorities ´Directors General in the Middle East, that took place on April 23, 2020, underlined the importance of taking all necessary measures to facilitate a cooperative approach to resume commercial passenger flights.