Dubai, Jan 12th, 2010 (WAM) -- The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) announced completion of phase one of the benchmarking studies conducted to identify best practices in civil aviation industry in order to make use of such practices in drafting the GCAA future strategy and develop its organizational structure in line with GCAA long-term objectives and vision within the framework of the GCAA-wide transformation program.
The GCAA Strategic Planning and Corporate Excellence Department, which oversees this project, reviewed results of the comparative survey conducted by a leading research company and covered five prominent countries in addition to institutions advanced in the civil aviation industry, with a view to benefiting from the results in crystallizing world-class strategy and governance standards for the GCAA in the stage to come. The benchmarking study spanned five civil aviation entities in countries considerably similar to the United Arab Emirates in civil aviation industry in terms of the corporate structure, annual and daily air traffic, airspace area under control, and the growth in passenger traffic. The study also included an all-out survey for the opinions of strategic partners to the GCAA. This step comes within the context of the unstinting efforts exerted by the GCAA to cement the reputation of the United Arab Emirates as a local and international hub for the aviation industry, further promoting the GCAA status in international associations, and upgrading the civil aviation sector as well as developing policies and regulations of the GCAA. Covering Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, the Netherlands, and the European Aviation Safety Agency in addition to more than 19 interviews with strategic partners to the GCAA, the study sought to reach the best lessons learnt from the experiences of those international entities in defining a cutting-edge strategy and setting world-class governance standards for the GCAA, through focusing on four main workstreams that included the legislative system, corporate structure, governance, and the operating model in addition to the financial policies. Commenting on the program, H.E. Saif Muhammed Al Suwaidi, Director General of the GCAA, said "the large-scale transformation program aims at bringing a radical change to the processes of control over aviation operations and quality standards regarding safety and security, as well as enhancing GCAA technical and supervisory capacities in addition to promoting cooperation with strategic clients". Within the same context, the Strategic Planning and Corporate Excellence Department defined the main action line of the GCAA which is based on its long-term strategic vision, policies, and goals, ensuring maintenance of a high-level operational and financial performance at the GCAA, and identification of main issues and matters to be tackled. "The study involved comparative benchmarks with peer institutions with regard to national policies that shape the institutional role of civil aviation institutions, the more transparent and clear legal systems, the clear-cut separation between the regulatory and service roles, the independence of governance structure and the strategy defined for communications as well as the consultancy mechanisms and cost-recovery strategy", said Laila Bin Hareb, Director of the Strategic Planning and Corporate Excellence Department in GCAA.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.
