Visit the Asia/Pacific Newsletter page to discover additional events and updates that took place in the first half of 2022 that are not shared below.
Progress of the Activities on the ICAO Cooperative Aviation Security Programme in the Asia and Pacific Region (CASP-AP)
The 17th CASP-AP Steering Committee Meeting (SCM) was hosted virtually by the 17th Chair, Mr Pradeep Adhikari, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on 21-22 July 2022. The SCM discussed the capacity building and training that was approved in the Interim February to July 2022 work plan. CASP-AP is pleased to report that all scheduled training was delivered during this period and the Screener Certification Process and Aircraft Operators Security Programme updates were completed with the help of external Subject Matter Experts. CASP-AP would like to record its appreciation of the support and guidance given by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) and particularly the outgoing Chair of CASP-AP and Director General of CAAT, Mr Suttipong Kongpool during CAAT’s period of Chairmanship since the 16th SCM in July 2019.
During the last five months, CASP-AP has concentrated on providing virtual aviation security workshops/courses, prioritized according to monthly themed activities – Quality Control, Risk, Security Programmes and Cybersecurity. Seven workshops/courses were held with 172 attendees from 19 Member States/Administrations.
In July, CASP-AP partnered with IATA to present a Cybersecurity Awareness seminar attended by 115 delegates. The CASP-AP Annual work plan was presented to the 17th SCM with an expected return in August 2022 to in-person training and capacity-building missions.
Enhancing cooperation between regional flight procedure programmes (FPP)
To enhance technical exchanges and regulatory improvement in the field of flight procedure design among the Asia-Pacific region, Africa region and the Middle East region, an online Seminar, hosted by DGAC France and co-organized by APAC FPP, was held on 16 June 2022.
The Seminar reviewed the existing regulatory and standard systems in the APAC FPP and Africa FPP, increased awareness about the priority needs of the newly established Mid FPP, and focused on the current flight procedure design technical report template and ground validation technical report template. Demand analysis of existing technical reports through practical cases, the regional FPPs also planned to continue to optimize and supplement the existing templates, so as to improve their pertinence and customization for specific regions, increase their universality and promote them in more regions as well. In this way, it can assist in providing better flight procedure design services for more regions and states.
The Sixth Meeting of the APAC SWIM Task Force (SWIM TF/6)
The Sixth Meeting of the APAC SWIM Task Force (SWIM TF/6) was held from 17 – 20 May 2022 via video teleconferencing (VTC). The meeting was attended by 213 participants from 18 States/Administrations, five International Organizations, and one service provider.
The objectives of SWIM TF/6 were to deliberate on various requirements for SWIM implementation in the APAC region to ensure the interoperability between SWIM-capable entities and not-SWIM-capable ones. The meeting discussed the APAC regional roadmap for SWIM implementation, a high-level APAC regional SWIM architecture, the APAC regional SWIM governance framework, the APAC regional SWIM information service specifications, and the implementation approach to establish the APAC regional SWIM. The meeting also reviewed the progress of various tasks and action items since the Fifth Meeting of SWIM Task Force (SWIM TF/5), the Terms of Reference (ToR) of SWIM TF, the work plan, APAC SWIM Timelines, and the inclusion of SWIM ASBUs in ICAO APAC Seamless ANS Plan next version. Additionally, the APAC SWIM Implementation Plan and Status Survey outcomes were presented, and further plan for APAC SWIM was deliberated. Several vital draft conclusions/decisions were taken for further consideration of CNS SG/26 and APANPIRG/33.
Ninth and Tenth meeting of the Common aeRonautical Virtual Private Network Operations Group of APANPIRG
The Ninth meeting of the Common aeRonautical Virtual Private Network Operations Group of APANPIRG (CRV OG/9) was held via video teleconference from 25 to 27 January 2022. The meeting was attended by 119 participants from 21 Member States/Administrations, one International Organization, and one industry member. The objective of the CRV OG/9 meeting was to review the CRV implementation of APAC Member States for overall transition time and to optimize the cost benefits of all stakeholders within the timeline. The meeting discussed CRV OG Reference documents, the requirement of CRV for SWIM subscribers, CRV contract management, interregional connections, and cyber-safety/security and resilience issues. Member States shared their experience of CRV implementation, operations, and CRV performance to facilitate other Member States contracting CRV. The meeting deliberated, took decisions on many important matters, and decided to meet within a month to finalize important action required for the current CRV contract extension.
The Tenth Meeting of the Common aeRonautical Virtual Private Network Operations Group of APANPIRG (CRV OG/10) was held on 18 April 2022 via video teleconference. The meeting was attended by 89 participants from 21 Member States/Administrations and one industry, namely PCCW Global, Hong Kong, China. The CRV OG/10 meeting discussed the CRV contract management-related topics, including upgrade/downgrade CRV circuits subscribed, non-aviation providers joining CRV, and contract extension requirements. Several vital draft conclusions/decisions were taken for further consideration of CNS SG/26 and APANPIRG/33.