At their first-ever forum, the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) joined forces to bring together South East Asian aviation stakeholders to discuss the future of air transport in the South East Asian region.
Travel to, from, and within South East Asia is expected to increase at an average 6.6% annually over the next 20 years. The civil aviation authorities of South East Asia are facing increased air traffic in the face of ongoing major infrastructure limitations, leading to improved requirements for safety and efficiently operation of aviation facilities and services.
Patrick Ky, Executive Director of EASA, said “Development of the Seamless ASEAN Sky together with the ASEAN Single Aviation Market is a must. It will soon become irrelevant how many passengers the airlines carry, aircraft are bought, or freedoms of the air are agreed – if the air traffic management system cannot handle the demand, the only thing that is created is delays.”
“Besides the forecast growth here, many South East Asia governments will be confronted by a rapidly evolving sectoral environment in terms of technologies, operations, and business models,” commented ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. “But as operations here continue to grow, and States continue to prosper from that growth, it is imperative that we continue to work continuously and cooperatively toward our shared objectives.”
Climate change was also discussed at the forum in Bangkok, Thailand, prompting the ICAO to advance environmental standards for civil aviation without traffic growth disruption, and the advanced digitalisation of aviation data to improve levels of efficiency and safety.
