Transcript 19th Steering Committee Meeting COSCAP

th
19
Steering Committee
Meeting COSCAP- SA
Presentation from
CAA Nepal
Where is Nepal ?
Area: Almost 57000 square mile
Population: Almost 30 million
CHINA
NEPAL
INDIA
Where is Nepal ?
Mount Everest
44 Domestic Airports
1 International Airport with
- 25 International Operators
- Up to 380 movements a day
- 14 Domestic operators
- 120 aircraft on registration
COSCAP-SA
The journey that began in 1997 from Bangkok
with the first Steering Committee Meeting of
the Director Generals of Civil Aviation of seven
South Asian states with the intent to cooperate
in removing deficiencies in their flight safety
oversight capabilities in association with ICAO,
by now has come along a long way. The
program that was focused mainly in flight
operations and the airworthiness in the
beginning has been now expanded to
aerodrome safety and ATM too.
COSCAP-SA
Nepal appreciate the COSCAP-SA's effort
in providing a dedicated forum for
continuing dialogue, coordination and
fostering cooperation in resolving various
safety issues and creating an environment
of harmonization
 However, several issues as rightly noted
by ICAO Regional Director in his opening
address including the question of honest
appraisal of the program is very
important.

Nepal would like to draw the attention of
the meeting on few remarks the Program
coordinator had noted while presenting the
progress report 2009 (DP 1).
- Absence of response or overly delayed
communication between the States and
Program.
- State’s non commitment to facilitate
execution of the Annual Work Program.
- State’s non participation at the meetings
or training activities organized by the
Program.
Nepal ‘s observation
National Coordinators could have played a very
important role to rectify above shortcomings.
 However, neither the State nor the Program is
able to mobilize and utilize the National
coordinators properly.
 NC is involved in every meetings and activities of
the programs. But still, it is disappointing to
note for not being able to motivate and mobilize
the NC in bridging the gap between the Program
and the state.
 The Program and the states must mobilize the
NCs in this respect.

Nepal ‘s observation
The Program should utilize the available
advanced means of communication for effective
coordination and mobilizing the NCs and must
minimize the numbers of meetings.
 More emphasis should be on actions rather than
meetings.
 Considering the budgetary deficit Nepal, would
like to suggest to review the proposed AWP to
tune along with the resources available.
 It is also to be noted that member states may
not be able to or need to participate in all
training programs organized by COSCAP.
Participation may depend largely on their need
and also availability of manpower.

Nepal ‘s observation
 Nepal fully support the idea of establishing
and strengthening COSCAP as a strong
and effective Regional Safety Oversight
Organization (RSOO).
 Regarding the concept of ICAO Council’s
proposal for establishing a separate
Regional Aviation Safety Group (RSAG),
Nepal’s suggestion is, if possible, to
explore a mechanism so that RSOO also
report directly to ICAO Regional Office so
that RSOO itself may function the job of
RSAG.
COSCAP & CAA Nepal
So far as Nepal is concerned, it is always
committed to COSCAP concept and principle.
 Nepal has been so far successful in convincing
and educating the industry partners also
regarding the importance of COSCAP for the
harmonization and safety enhancement.
 As a result, they are active members of NAST
and they are participating in most of the
COSCAP programs. However, this time they
seems to be bit disappointed as they could not
find any industry participation from other states.

COSCAP & CAA Nepal
In Nepal NAST is playing an active role in
reviewing and implementing safety
initiatives recommended by SARAST. It
has also been proved as an important
forum in bringing together all the
stakeholders involved in the safety and
thereby creating a coordinated approach to
solve the underlying safety issues.
SARI in Nepal
Just last week, we had SARI catch up
program organized in Nepal. The
Industry participation in the program was
very much encouraging. Through this
program we have been able to educate
the importance of harmonization to the
industry partners. A working group has
been assigned from Nepal. Nepal is going
to host the meeting of the SARI Working
group next July.
COSCAP's support to Nepal
We sincerely appreciate COSCAP's support to
Nepal during the aerodrome certification
process, SMS training and planning.
 Nepal has taken full advantage of generic
manuals and guidiance materials developed by
COSCAP to customize as per our needs.
 ICAO USOAP Audit was a great challenge for us
- COSCAP-SA's assistance for the audit
preparation and also its support during the audit
period was a great help for us. It is because of
the COSCAP's support Nepal has been able to
complete USOAP Audit successfully.
 CAA Nepal would like to thank sincerely to
COSCAP-SA and its experts for their
extraordinary support during the Audit period.

CAA Nepal: Our strength
It is due to COSCAP's support, knowledge and
exposure gained from the different programs
organized by COSCAP-SA, Nepal is able to
reduce deficiencies and gradually increase its
safety oversight capabilities.
 After the Audit Report we have prepared
relevant corrective action plan through which
we expect to reduce our deficiency significantly.
 So far as contribution to COSCAP is concerned
we do not have any dues.
 Experiences and knowledge we have obtained in
the field of Birds Control Measure is very
remarkable. Nepal will be very happy to share
our experiences and expertise in this field if any
other member states needs our cooperation.

CAA Nepal: Our Weakness
CAA Nepal has a very dedicated and
devoted human resources, however, lack
of adequate Manpower in safety oversight
specially in airworthiness and flight
operation is still a problem for us. Besides,
retaining the trained and expert
manpower is another problem for us
On the above background



let me emphasize a bit more on our present
challenges
During the time when global air transport is seriously
affected by volatile fuel price and global recession
Nepal's air transport industry remain unaffected.
Due to the favorable policy followed by the government
both the domestic as well as International passengers
growth continued. Subsequently air traffic movement
also increased significantly.
As a liberal policy followed by the government
subsequent to the declaration of the year 2011 as a
Nepal Tourism Year, 6 new international operators
started their schedule operations in 2009 alone. Another
3 international operators are in pipeline.
Challenges and opportunities
This unprecedented growth of air traffic
produced many challenges as well as
opportunities.
 Immediate challenge is the problems as a
result of air traffic congestion in the only
international airport resulting excessive
work load to ATC.

Immediate impact of the growth
The
congestion in the only
international airport –TIA ; in
the ground as well as in the
sky.
Excessive workload to ATC.
We have taken various measures both
immediate and long term to address
the problem
Our immediate attention
At the moment our attention is focused on
- enhancing the airspace capacity and
- determination of ATC capacity in TIA.
 CAA Nepal is in process for the phase wise
implementation of SMS.
 In course of implementing SMS in ATS,
Nepal wants to share knowledge and
experiences of member states in
determining ATC capacity.
Nepal would appreciate any help
from COSCAP or member states
to assist us in determining ATC
and Air Route capacity.
Thank you