Fourteen (14) resolutions made during the 5th EAC Aviation Symposium

16^th March, 2020. The 5^th Edition of EAC Aviation symposium was hosted by The Republic of Burundi on 27^th and 28^th of February 2020. Burundi Civil Aviation Authority offer to host the event soon after the closure of the 4^th edition which took place in Nairobi Kenya.

His Excellency Second Vice President of the Republic of Burundi Honorable Joseph Butore officially opened the Symposium. A number of presentations where done on different topics under the theme: evolving with dynamic technological transformation the case of aviation safety and security. Participants were also engaged through panel discussions and questions and answers.

During the closure, members states agreed on fourteen resolutions as listed below;

1. The partner States to enhance their efforts in improving performance in the area of Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation (AIG), Flight Operations (OPS), Aerodromes and Ground Aids (AGA);
2. The partner States to increase collaboration amongst technology developers/manufactures and regulators as a means of keeping up to date with ever-changing technologies;
3. Partner States are required to delegate functions for which they do not have adequate capacity to CASSOA under GASOS framework;
4. Partner States are required to implement free routing in the continental and oceanic airspace over East African Community States and set up a free routing implementation Project Team including Regulators, Air Navigation Service Providers, Airlines and other stakeholders;
5. States to review their National Policies in regard to PBN Road map and align them with the objectives that will support CCO/CDO implementation and make use of the technical support available with Africa Flight Procedure Program (AFPP);
6. Partner States who have not yet signed the Solemn Commitment to join SAATM (Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda), are requested to do so preferably by the end of 2020;
7. EAC Secretariat is called upon to collaborate with AFCAC as well as AUC to ensure active participation of Air Transport expert from EAC partner states CAAs and Ministries responsible for Air Transport to the awareness, capacity building programs and experts working group meetings. Additionally, EAC Secretariat to collaborate with AFRAA to establish by the end of 2021 a platform of regional airlines in EAC to regularly meets and discusses their roles in the implementation of SAATM;
8. Regional open skies initiative to be supported by a policy for EAC States;
9. Organise or conduct and EAC regional meeting in collaboration with the Regional ICAO ESAF, African Union Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organisation with the objective of developing a multi sectoral public health emergency preparedness response and intervention strategies for Covid – 2019 or enhance their surveillance on Public health events/communicable diseases spread at the International Airports;
10. CASSOA to partner with the World Bank and ADF to support what the EAC Partner states need to implement UTM.
11. The partner states through CASSOA to co ordinate with the World Bank to guide the next step to implement a regional UTM “back-end” framework to support a common infrastructure and impact economic development in the region, while allowing each country to tended their own “front-end” system as per their requirement/regulations.
12. Work with the ADF and World Bank to scale up UAS operations & Infrastructure for the benefit of the region while building capacity. The World Bank and ADF are willing to help, but require from a region a concrete demand and strategic request;
13. That CASSOA and stakeholders to support promotion of the implementation of airport collaborative decision – making, including best practices and global technical standards.
14. Partner states are urged to expedite the process of certifying at least one international Aerodrome within their jurisdiction, preferably by the end of 2021.

CASSOA