Abu Dhabi, Oct 13th, 2010 (WAM)--The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), through Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre, started recently providing approach area monitoring services at Al Ain International Airport. This is the first service provided by GCAA to UAE airports. Previously, it used to monitor the airspace only for aircraft flying over, arriving at, and departing UAE.
"This step is necessary to help increase Al Ain airport movement capacity and regulate the airspace flexibly so as to allow more aircraft to fly and land in it," Saif Mohammad Al Suwaidi, Director General, GCAA said. "Besides normal chartered flights, Al Ain airport has civil and military aviation training schools, and our aim is to participate in making it effective using the latest air navigation systems in the region and the world, provided by Sheikh Zayed Centre," he added. On his part, Hassan Karam, Director of Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre pointed out to the importance of this service: "It saves time, effort and money, using a unified electronic system in line with the best international standards." "It is necessary to provide the approach monitoring service in Al Ain airspace as there are more than 500 air movements. The team at Sheikh Zayed Centre developed last year a radar system for monitoring air movement and scheduled training on the new equipment for 130 air controllers and assistants at Al Ain airport and Sheikh Zayed Centre," Karam added. Prior to this step, the previous system used traditional systems that depended on flight time allocation without the use of electronic radar systems to monitor the approach area. The new service provided by Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre is expected to increase safety standards with four safety networks in place: horizontal approach early alert, mountain alert, prohibited area alert and vertical height change early alert.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.
