Throughout the evolving COVID-19 crisis, ICAO’s Regional Office in Cairo ensured there was an open dialogue with member States to reduce the risks of the spread of COVID-19 by air transport, and to protect the health of air travellers and aviation personnel, while at the same time maintaining air transport operations and ensuring an orderly return to normal operations in due course. Additionally, they established communication with international and regional organizations to harmonize efforts and planning in the recovery phase.
To help support of these efforts, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), in collaboration with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO). developed a Month of Knowledge for The Future of Air Navigation Services (ANS). The series of educational and awareness webinars will address different parts of ANS. The aim of the webinars was to share the knowledge and experiences of the proposed subjects with the aviation community.
The webinars, which were provided at no cost, spotlighted the importance of ANS, issues, improvements and benefits for States. Global experts will share their experiences and speakers from international organizations will share their expertise during the webinars. The initiative served as a platform for discussions and guidance on the below topics that were useful for the many industry stakeholders who participated. The statistics for the webinars are provided at the end of this article.
Effectiveness of AIM functions, systems and processes
6 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
A presentation of the aeronautical information functions that are a state responsibility, and the systems and processes to effectively and efficiently fulfil these roles.
Air Traffic Flow Management
9 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
An introduction to air traffic flow management as part of the ATM ecosystem and how the collaboration of the aviation community contributes to optimal and efficient resource utilization.
The future of air traffic control training
11 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
An introduction to air traffic control (ATC) sections, parts and divisions. Insight into what ATC training will look like in the future and how it would adapt to the integration of drones, hypersonic traffic and data links.
Effective quality and compliance audits for air navigation service providers (ANSPs)
13 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
Merging quality and compliance audits. The importance of audit preparations, defining and publishing auditors’ actions before an audit. Exploring how to complete an audit, reducing resources and increasing the performance of an audit.
Systems thinking in safety
17 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
Exploring concepts to encourage a ‘systems thinking’ approach to help make sense of, and improve, systems performance. Ways of thinking about systems, work and safety and translating theory into practice, will also be covered.
AIP digital datasets
19 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
The perspective of transposing Annex 15/PANS-AIM requirements is the most demanding activity for a State AIS (i.e. the operational implementation of the digital datasets. This session discusses the implementation steps of AIP datasets, the “what, how, when” of the transition plan elements.
Blockchain and Big Data in ANS
24 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
What are “blockchain” and “Big Data”? This session will focus on their potential use in ANS and the real-time benefits in terms of cost, performance, decision-making and governance, as well as the industry challenges for its implementation?
UTM – The new ATM Plus
26 August 2020, 16:00 UAE/12:00 UTC
Rapidly growing unmanned traffic is becoming an essential stakeholder in the ATM world. How will new partners be integrated and how can we safely and efficiently grow together?
System-Wide Information Management (SWIM)
13 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
Presenting the transformation of the ANS infrastructure to a globally interoperable ecosystem; its importance for the global roadmap presented in the Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP); and what has been learned from the first-generation implementations of SWIM-enabled applications.
Civil/Military Coordination
31 August 2020, 12:00 UAE/08:00 UTC
The benefits of civil/military cooperation in providing useful guidance based on ICAO Circular 330. A special focus on the conditional route (CDR) and airspace management cell (AMC) operations. This session will provide an overview of the new ICAO Doc 10088, as well as awareness on the implementation of the Free Routes Airspace (FRA concept).
| Total number of registrants: | 1758 | ||||
| Numbers of attendees | Session title | Registered attendees | Ad-hoc joiners | Total | |
| Effectiveness of AIM functions, systems, and processes | 104 | 133 | 237 | ||
| Air Traffic Flow Management | 112 | 159 | 271 | ||
| Future of ATC training | 154 | 223 | 377 | ||
| Effective Quality & Compliance Audit for ANSP | 135 | 200 | 335 | ||
| Systems Thinking in Safety | 148 | 174 | 322 | ||
| AIP Digital Datasets | 135 | 149 | 284 | ||
| Blockchain & Big Data in ANS | 110 | 132 | 242 | ||
| UTM The New ATM Plus | 77 | 111 | 188 | ||
| System-Wide Information Management | 88 | 97 | 185 | ||
| Civil-Military Coordination | 90 | 126 | 216 | ||
| Totals | 1153 | 1504 | 2657 | ||
| Number of organizations of attendees | 226 | ||||
| Number of speakers | GCAA | External | |||
| 11 | 11 | ||||
| Number of educational sessions/hours | 10 | ||||
