The General Authority of Civil Aviation attends the 2016 ICAN Conference and signs a number of agreements

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The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) will be participating in the Ninth International Conference for Air Services negotiation (ICAN2016), which will be held under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in the city of Nassau in the Bahamas during the 5^th to the 9^th of December, 2016.
For his part, Captain Abdulhakeem Albadur Assistant to the President for Security, Safety and air transport explained that GACA participation in this forum comes from its effective position in the international air transport map and its effective role in the development of air transport, as well as its nurturing role in the development of the industry to achieve the highest safety and security and ways to keep up with the rapid development in the industry.
Albadur revealed that during the conference GACA will signing a number of bilateral air agreements with a number of friendly countries after approval was given by the ministerial cabinet.  These agreements will help keep pace with the acceleration in the growth of the air transport industry and to provide operational opportunities and destination points for our national carriers.  Also during the conference, negotiations will nearly be held with a number of countries to which the Kingdom associated with in earlier agreements and to update the existing operational framework.  This in addition to negotiating with various countries to set up new bilateral agreements.
He noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an effective functioning state in support of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which has 191 member’s states, and this through its membership of the ICAO Council and it chairs and is a member of several executive committees.  The Kingdom have full participation of a number of commission in the work of the organization and its committees relating to aspects of air transport and safety of security of air navigation, and financial support contributing to the development of the organization.  This was demonstrated recently by the generous donation of the Kingdom to the initiative “No country left behind” to the tune of one million dollars.
He went on to say that the conference is an opportunity for Member States to conduct talks and consultations in one location to save on cost and time. The conference provides an opportunity to conduct bilateral negotiations, or multilateral consultations discussions of topics related to air service.
It’s worth mentioning that the General Authority of Civil Aviation have signed a number of bilateral agreement in the past, where it signed in Bombay in 2011 nine memorandums of understandings.  In the year of 2012 an opportunity presented itself to host this global forum, where the Kingdom occupies an esteemed international stature and a constant advancement in this industry.  GACA have targeted sixty-eight countries during this conference where it held a face to face meetings with all the participating countries.  In the year 2013, GACA participated in the city of Durian, South Africa and have signed off on thirteen draft bilateral air service agreements.  In the 2014, GACA signed ten memorandums of understanding and signed off on five bilateral agreements projects in Bali, Indonesia. While in the year 2015, five memorandum of understandings were updated and four new project’s bilateral agreements were signed off in Antalya, Turkey.