Conference Day One: Monday 5th October 2009

9.00 Chair’s Welcome And Opening Remarks

John Swift
International Business Director
NATS

Regional Overview

9.10 Keynote: An Overview Of The Current Airspace Management And Upcoming Challenges In The Middle East Aviation Industry

• Outlining current market conditions and challenges of air traffic infrastructure
• Exploiting recent project developments in the region
• Overcoming the challenges of the shortage of air traffic controllers
• State-of-the-art methodologies to promote safety, efficiency and the environment in congested airspace
• Addressing the need to keep pace with changing technology

Hassan Karam
Director of Air Navigation Services, Acting Director of Project and Planning
General Civil Aviation Authority, UAE

9.40 Case Study: Transition To Modern Navigation And Surveillance

• Assessing traditional navigation using ground-based navigational aids
• Navigation using GNSS
• PBN specifications endorsed by MIDANPIRG
• PBN initiatives in the Middle East region
• Conventional Radar Surveillance
• ADS-B
• ADS-C
• Multilateration
• Surveillance techniques comparison and IATA position

Ahmad Qinawi
Manager, Safety, Operations and Infrastructure
IATA

Planning, Developmemt, Redesign And Efficiency

10.50 Developing An Environmentally Friendly Atmosphere By Re-Aligning Airspace Control In The Region

• Underlining the importance of environmental issues for the future of the aviation industry
• Assessing current initiatives for space re-alignment in the region
• Appraising the need to communicate across the region and between the civilians and the military to free more airspace
• Highlighting the link between efficient ATS and ATM and the reduction in aviation emission and noise

Captain Mohammed Aziz
Chairman, Aviation Safety Committee
Arab Air Carriers Organization
Advisor to the Chairman
Middle East Airlines

11.20 Reflection And Reality Of Optimising Air Traffic In The Gulf Region

• Assessing air traffic needs in the Gulf region
• Highlighting key technology, policy, and operational changes that will be required
• Describing what is needed to bring it all together

Gregg A. Leone
Director, System Transformation and Security
The Mitre Corporation, Center for Advanced Aviation System Development

Effective Airspace Management

11.50 Case Study: Saudi Airspace Modeling - Lessons Learned

• Identifying key factors to be considered when planning and designing airspace
• Upper airspace concept
• Regional airspace: assessing current situation and challenges
• Outlining airspace congestion in the Middle East and dealing with high density traffic areas
• Recommendations
• Efforts to increase future airspace capacity
• Ensuring safety and security in congested skies (GACA/ANS Civil/military coordination improvement)
• Trade-off between airspace users’ requirements

Ibrahim B. AlJabri
Manager, Airspace Management
General Authority of Civil Aviation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

13.30 Case Study: Assessing Abu Dhabi Air Traffic Control Complex

• Exploiting challenges and opportunities of new ATCC tower project
• Background of the ATCC project
• An insight into the ATC complex: systems and equipment etc.
• Appraising new technology enhancing ATM

Mohammed A. Al Katheeri
Head - ANS Special Projects
ADAC - Abu Dhabi Airports Company

14.00 Air Ground Voice Communication A Critical Issue

• Voice, the most safety critical coordination medium
• Future proof investment
• Responding to traffic volume changes by effective workload management

Daniel Weideli
Senior Product Manager
Schmid Telecom

15.00 User’s Perspective: Assessing The Next 5 Years Growth In The Middle East Aviation Industry

• Shifting ATM to a performance based approach
• Exploiting the environmental challenges in air traffic management
• What role does ATC optimisation play in reducing cost?
• Assessing the future of air navigation systems in the region

Bob Everest
Vice President Flight Operations Support
Emirates

Overview Of Hr Challenges For Air Traffic Controllers

15.30 Fujairah Department Of Civil Aviation, Air Traffic Control Department: Example Of Nationalisation Within Air Traffic Control

• Selection, screening, employment and training of UAE nationals
• Mixing external experience with internal enthusiasm
• Staff progression plan – setting a clear path
• Language and comprehension
• Challenges and successes
• Building a teamwork approach

Mark Robert Blanchard
Manager, Air Traffic Services
Fujairah International Airports

16.00 Exploiting The Keys To Successful Air Traffic Controllers Selection

• Establishing the selection criteria
• Attracting the right candidates
• Screening the candidates
• Assessing the candidates

Bruce Heesterman
General Manager Airways International
Airways New Zealand

16.30 Panel Discussion: Reviewing HR Training And Managing Challenges Of Air Traffic Controllers In The MENA Region

Join regional and international experts in this interactive panel discussion dedicated to addressing the most pressing challenges facing the aviation industry and the most effective ways of overcoming them. In this session the panelists will analyse common issues, perceptions, objectives and concerns. The following key areas will be discussed:

• Assessing increased requirements for air traffic controllers; what training strategies should be implemented to match the requirements?
• Discussing the impact of new technology deployment on air traffic controllers
• Exploiting the strategies to minimise the current shortage of air traffic controllers
• What the future holds: what impact will have aviation boom on air traffic controllers?

Panelists:

Bruce Heesterman General Manager Airways International Airways New Zealand	Mark Robert Blanchard Manager, Air Traffic Services Fujairah International Airports
Jan Klas Director General Air Navigation Services	Anne Kathrine Jensen Managing Director Entry Point North AB

17.10 Closing Remarks From The Chairman

17.20 End Of Day One

[ Register Now] · [ Next: Conference Day Two: Tuesday 6th October 2009 ]