In view of the ongoing flood situation in several areas of Bangkok, Thailand, it has been decided to postpone the 5th Regional Aviation Medicine and Public Health Team (RAMPHT) Meeting and 5th Steering Committee Meeting (SCM/5) of the Cooperative Arrangement for the Prevention of Spread of Communicable Disease through Air travel (CAPSCA) scheduled for 14 -15 November 2011 at the ICAO Regional Office until further notice.  A new date for the meetings (now anticipated to be held in 2012) will be notified as soon as it is determined.

Due to the exceptional circumstances of flooding in Bangkok, ICAO APAC Regional Office has decided to reschedule the ICAO Asia and Pacific Regional Seminar/ Workshop for National Continuous Monitoring Coordinators to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 21 to 25 November 2011.  New dates of the Seminar/Workshop will be notified later.

Due to the exceptional circumstances, the ICAO APAC Regional Office has decided to postpone the SOCM/2 Meeting (15-18 November 2011). Revised schedule for this meeting will be notified as soon as it is determined.

Tenth Working Group meeting of Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN)Implementation Coordination Group (ATNICG WG/10) was held in Jaipur, India from 26 to 29 September, 2011.  The meeting, hosted by Airports Authority of India, reviewed the outcome of CNS/MET SG/15 and APANPIRG/22 on matters related to Aeronautical Fixed and Mobile Services.  Discussing developments that had taken place in the related global environment and considering difficulty in working with IPv6 addresses, meeting decided to recommend acquisition of a domain name for civil aviation.  Such domain name will also provide an identity to civil aviation.  The meeting also reviewed the results of XML over AMHS trial conducted between USA, Singapore and Hong Kong.  It was decided that a presentation based on the trial outcome will be made to the Regional OPMET meeting.

The purpose of the Symposium will be to bring together all parties that have a stake in the establishment and management of RSOOs (including the COSCAPs), in order to, as mandated by the Assembly Resolution A37-8, promote the concept of regional cooperation for the purpose of enhancing safety oversight in the regions. The proposed themes cover such areas as the ICAO’s existing Policy and Framework for Regional Cooperation and the challenges facing RSOOs over the current ICAO triennium. The latter includes topics such as the RSOO’s role in respect to new ICAO strategies and programmes, to include the Continuing Monitoring Approach, the development and implementation of State Safety Programmes and the role to be played by RSOOs in the ICAO Regional Aviation Safety Groups. A related topic will be the need for ICAO and the RSOOs to collaborate on the development and implementation of work programmes, in order to ensure alignment with the ICAO strategic objectives. In addition, matters relating to the sharing of safety information and data and the creation of common databases will also be topics for discussion. The need for RSOOs to develop sound business plans and funding mechanisms that will sustain them in the long term and the role to be played by the donor community and financial institutions, will also be topics for discussion. [more …]

The 11th Meeting of the FANS Implementation Team for South-East Asia (FIT-SEA/11) and the 18th Meeting of South-East Asia ATM Coordination Group (SEACG/18) were held at the Regional Office on 3 May and 4-6 May 2011, respectively. Central Reporting Agency – Singapore (CRA-Singapore) was established in April 2011 under the FIT-SEA. The Philippines will move on to the Phase 2 trial by the end of this year [more …]

The Twenty First Meeting of the Asia/Pacific Air Navigation Planning and Implementation Regional Group (APANPIRG/21) was held in Bangkok from 6 to 10September 2010 at the ICAO Regional Office. The meeting was attended by 114 participants from 23 Member States and 3 International Organizations (CANSO, IACA, and IATA).

APANPIRG/21 adopted 49 Conclusions and 10 Decisions. The meeting report is available on the regional office web site: www.bangkok.icao.int under the menu item “APANPIRG and subgroups” (the username and password have been provided to all civil aviation administrations in the region) [more …]

Many States rely on aviation operations, from Remote Island Nations, land-locked countries to highly industrialized States involved in import/export trading.  For all of them it is essential that the international aviation network keeps up and running, even in difficult times.  Therefore it is important to be assured that all key actors and service providers in the aviation sector have plans on how to mitigate impacts of various hazards that could affect safe operations.  Measures to take during a volcanic eruption come to mind, but also measures to deal with high staff absenteeism rates caused by disease outbreaks such a pandemic or because of other hazards are of similar importance and relevance [more …]

The twentieth meeting of the ATM/AIS/SAR Sub-Group (ATM/AIS/SAR/SG/20) of the Asia/Pacific Air Navigation Planning and Implementation Regional Group (APANPIRG) was held in Singapore from 5 to 9 July 2010, graciously hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.  The meeting adopted a regional guidance material to assist States for the implementation of changes to the flight plan format introduced by Amendment 1 to PANS-ATM (Doc 4444) which is the result of the hard work of the Flight Plan & ATS Message Implementation Task Force  [more …]

The meeting was informed that Air Traffic Services Message Handling System (AMHS) service commenced operation between Hong Kong and Macao, China since end of December 2009.

AMHS is the first application system to work over the ATN to replace the AFTN for efficient support of aeronautical messages delivery, including graphical charts/diagrams, between ATS operational centres.  Other ATN-based application systems to be implemented include AIDC, ADS-C, CPDLC and FIS [more …]

The Fifth South East Asia (SEA) ADS-B Working Group meeting hosted by DGCA Indonesia was held in Jakarta from 21 to 22 January 2010. The meeting was informed that the world’s first nationwide satellite-based air navigation surveillance system has been put into operational use in Australia since end of December 2009 after the culmination of years of planning, hard work and commitment by the staff of Airservices Australia and CASA.

The accuracy of the resulting information displayed on controllers’ screens has allowed separation standards to be reduced from the previous procedural standard of 30 nautical miles to the radar standard of five nautical miles for aircraft flight at and above FL290 ADS-B has been enthusiastically welcomed by controllers, pilots and the aviation industry [more …]

ICAO Press Release

Montreal, 8 December 2009 – “ Under ICAO’s leadership, aviation has produced the first, and to date, only globally-harmonized agreement designed to address climate change on a global basis from a specific sector and ICAO is in the best position to effectively and systematically address the impact of international aircraft emissions on climate change,” said Roberto Kobeh González, President of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council today at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen

“The remarkable progress of aviation in reducing the impact of engine emissions over the past 40 years is the result of consensus building and cooperation among the 190 Member States of ICAO and sustained efforts of the air transport industry,” he added.

“We look to the outcome of COP 15 to deliver an agreement that acknowledges the importance of all States working through ICAO towards the achievement of an environmentally sustainable aviation,” he emphasized.

In October, a high-level meeting of ICAO Member States representing 93% of global commercial air traffic reached agreement on further reducing aviation’s impact on climate change, in cooperation with the air transport industry, through: 

1. A global goal of 2 % annual improvement in fuel efficiency until the year 2050;
2. Development of a global CO2 standard for aircraft;
3. Development of a framework for market-based measures in international aviation;
4. Submission of States’ action plans and annual reporting on CO2 emissions to ICAO; and
5. Measures to assist developing States and to facilitate access to financial resources, technology transfer and capacity-building [more …]

Aviation is a small but highly visible piece of the global climate change puzzle. Under the UNs International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), aviation has produced the first and only globally harmonized agreement to address climate change from a sector. This short video traces the concrete actions and tangible global results associated with ICAOs strategy to reduce the impact of aircraft emissions on the environment.