GCAA targets 24 air agreements per year

The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) plans to have an average of 24 bilateral air services deal talks per year, according to a senior GCAA official. "The UAE airlines continue to implement their expansion of international routes and hence the UAE GCAA is planning to have an average of 24 bilateral air services meetings per year," Omar Bin Galeb, Deputy Director-General of GCAA said. Last year, the UAE signed 15 bilateral air services agreements with other countries — including initial and final signing agreements, according to the GCAA. So far 12 agreements have been signed, the latest having been signed yesterday with Romania. Asked if bilateral deals were increasingly becoming an issue for the aviation industry, Galeb said: "On the contrary, we see that more countries are willing to negotiate ‘open skies' agreements, which greatly facilitates connectivity between the countries." He said that bilateral air services consultations are the normal procedure by which countries discuss and agree how international services are going to be conducted. "And it has been in place for over 60 years, since the inception of the Chicago Convention," Galeb pointed out. The UAE joined the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) air services agreement in 2009, along with seven other countries in order to further liberalise its air space by signing the deal under IATA's Multilateral Statement of Policy Principles. The UAE Tuesday signed an open skies agreement with Romania in order to boost cooperation between the two countries in the air transport sector, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said. IATA said the agreement allows any number of designated airlines of both countries to perform scheduled air services — with unlimited capacities, numbers of frequencies and types of aircraf. From / Gulf News