Amman,  on June 16, Royal Jordanian hosted the 5th Top Level Safety Team (TLST) meeting, organized by the Middle East Aviation Safety Roadmap (MEASRM), which brings together senior aviation officials from local, regional and international aviation authorities, air carriers and supporting organizations.

The members of TLST reviewed all the achievements of the MEASRM and the whole structure of the MEASRM was addressed in view of the enlargement of the MEASRM to include all the regulatory bodies, the airlines, the supporting associations and industry stakeholders from all Middle East countries.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, RJ President/CEO Hussein Dabbas said that the meeting is crucial to addressing safety concerns and to generating safety initiatives. The team has proved adept at offering useful advice to airlines and aviation authorities, and to improving safety in the region. 

Dabbas also said that RJ successfully met the requirements needed to become an European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) member and implementer, and renewed the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) accreditations without a hitch, a credential RJ is proud of.

Dabbas pointed out that applying safety instructions starts with theoretical learning and identifying risks, their causes, protection methods and reporting hazards, and ends with the safe use of equipment in offices, at airports, on the ramps, in the cargo and maintenance hangars and shops, and on board the aircraft.  

Dabbas thanked the Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission for its efforts to ensure a safe and secure flying environment over Jordanian skies.

Director General of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority/Chairman of the MEASRM Saif Al Suwaidi, who chaired the meeting, delivered a speech, saying:  Many challenges are still ahead of us as we are now entering the implementation phase of our plan. The co-operation between the aviation industry partners and the governments is the key factor to obtain best results, therefore all stakeholders should commit resources in order to achieve good results in meeting our objectives and targets.

He added that the role of the MEASRM is to improve safety. In many cases, individual countries do not possess the resources or the expertise to act alone in resolving safety concerns.  Therefore, this regional body is best suited to coordinate and align multiple safety initiatives by strategically leveraging expertise and resources of the concerned countries.

Chief Commissioner/CEO of Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission Captain Mohammad Amin Al-Quran said that the Middle East Aviation Safety Roadmap confirms the importance and necessity for meaningful partnerships between the regulators, industry partners, and regional and international aviation organizations.  

He pointed out that the aviation industry in the Middle East region is growing at unprecedented level, thus requiring collective and structured efforts amongst all parties in the aviation sector to find solutions to the various new and emerging challenges in civil aviation. Therefore, the most successful aviation safety initiatives have resulted from the joint work among the regulators and the industry partners.    

During the one-day meeting, the participants discussed safety topics specific to the Middle East region and aviation safety best practices. They also tackled Middle East Aviation Safety Roadmap, which is a hands-on, active working strategy that promotes higher aviation safety initiatives and is part of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) umbrella. Senior aviation delegates from across the Middle East discussed establishing uniform measures to aviation safety procedures.

The Middle East Aviation Safety Roadmap was established in 2008 by the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority; it was designed to support the implementation of the ICAO Safety Strategic Objective of reducing the number of fatal accidents and fatalities in the Middle East irrespective of the volume of air traffic, and of achieving a significant decrease in accident rates, particularly in the Middle East.

The MEASRM established a Top Level Safety Team (TLST) comprised of industry partners, supporting associations and government stakeholders from across the Middle East and addressing all of the Global Safety Initiatives (GSIs) of the Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP).

Photo caption (picture 1): From right: Chief Commissioner/CEO of Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission Captain Mohammad Amin Al-Quran, RJ President/CEO Hussein Dabbas, Director General of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority/Chairman of the MEASRM Saif Al Suwaidi, Secretary General of the Middle East Aviation Safety Roadmap Captain Nikolaos Antypas

Source: Press Release (Royal Jordanian)