APAC Regions continue to grow

The current global financial crisis notwithstanding, worldwide annual growth in passenger and freight traffic has been quite impressive over the past 10 years, with a cumulative growth of around 46 percent. The Asia and Pacific Regions (APAC) were solid contributors to this impressive achievement and could well overtake the European and North American Regions within the next decade, thus becoming the world’s largest air transport market. Freight traffic for the APAC Regions is already the second largest, with an annual growth rate of 8.6 percent during 2006, two percent above the world average.

Increased aviation activity has brought major challenges for States and civil aviation agencies. According to Airports Council International (ACI), the Asia and Pacific regions have 98 members operating 461 airports in 49 countries. In 2007, these airports handled 1.2 billion passengers, 33 million tonnes of cargo and 11 million aircraft movements. Some of these airports are amongst the busiest in the world and many must cope with the impact of ever-increasing traffic in terms of airport capacity and infrastructure, constraints resulting from the introduction of new large aircraft, such as the A380, B777-300 ER and the upcoming B747-800, as well as safety considerations.

Sustained increases in aircraft movements have also placed considerable pressure on airspace management. The ICAO APAC office, located in Bangkok and operated with the support and cooperation of States and international organisations, has helped to improve airspace capacity by facilitating enhancements such as the implementation of Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) and route restructuring.

As part of its responsibilities, the ICAO APAC Air navigation planning and implementation regional group (APANPIRG) has established a Target Level of Safety for en route airspace. The increasing complexity of air navigation procedures and requirements, coupled with essential interaction with States, also led APANPIRG to establish the Regional Airspace Safety Monitoring Advisory Group (RASMAG) in order to assist the safe implementation of RVSM and CNS/ATM applications, and ensure that States achieve established levels of airspace safety. To mitigate lengthy delays caused by an unregulated flow of flights through Kabul FIR and European airport curfews, long range international air traffic flow management procedures were implemented across the Bay of Bengal and South Asia. The more effective management of night time peak traffic periods through the Kabul FIR resulted in much more efficient and environmentally friendly operations.

In the coming years, ICAO’s main challenge will be to manage ever expanding aviation activity whilst maintaining the safety, security, sustainability and efficiency of civil aviation. ICAO’s strategy for improving safety is detailed in the Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP). An important element of this plan is that it integrates the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap developed by the Industry Safety Strategy Group and is firmly founded on the principle of partnership. ICAO also provides several levels of safety management training to assist states in developing safety programmes. Another challenge the aviation industry is facing is the significant shortage of qualified aviation personnel. In the long term, this situation can only be addressed if regulatory authorities and industry cooperate and develop plans to effectively manage this important human resource issue.

ICAO continues to provide important and effective assistance to all of APAC’s member States and aviation stakeholders, through the various programmes and mechanisms implemented by the ICAO Bangkok office. ICAO also continues to provide leadership and vision, in collaboration with regional stakeholders, to maintain the safety and efficiency of air transport services to manage and guide the ongoing development of a safe, secure and sustainable regional air transportation system.