Weekly review #169 - 5th October

Picture of Vincent Lambercy
Posted by Vincent Lambercy

First up this week, Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) joined several aviation stakeholders, public and private trade and tourism companies and major local manufacturing businesses at the official opening of Richards Bay Airport (RBA), an event hosted by the uMhlathuze Municipality. Makaya Mamogale, the ATNS Commercial Services Executive, says RBA is critical for facilitating wider economic activities in the Northern KwaZulu-Natal region. “The airport is a key infrastructure in both the regional and national air transport system”.

 

Next, ENAIRE is continuing to improve flight efficiency by making greater use of continuous descent operations. In 2021, 36% of the approaches authorised by ENAIRE were continuous descent approaches (CDA), compared to the European average of 18%, according to EUROCONTROL (Performance Review Unit) data from the continent's major airports, meaning CDAs are 18 percentage points higher in the case of Spain.

 

In other news, there have been bilateral talks between Qatar and the Dominican Republic in the field of civil aviation. Mr. Mohamed Faleh Alhajri, in charge of managing Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA), met with Dr. José Ernesto Marte Piantini, President of the Civil Aviation Board Alternate Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to ICAO. During the meeting, a memorandum of understanding was signed that allows cargo flights between the State of Qatar and the Dominican Republic to operate in the seventh freedom, which will positively affect the overall economic and investment activity and trade exchange between the two countries.

 

Finally, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Airservices Australia and emerging aviation technology are working together to develop an Uncrewed Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) system. The UTM will support the safe, economical and efficient management of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in Australian airspace, and the UTM ecosystem will make available a wide range of services to support the industry to thrive.