The United Arab Emirates represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority, GCAA, has initialled an Air Service Agreement on an Open Skies policy basis by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Government of Gabon.

The agreement was signed by Capt. Khalid Humaid Al Ali, Director of Air Transport Department in the GCAA, and Oyinamono Dominique, Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Gabon.

The two delegations agreed that any number of designated airlines of both parties will have the right to perform scheduled air services between the two countries.

The MoU allows full flexibility on the routes, capacity, number of frequencies and types of aircraft, in any type of service (passenger or cargo). The signed Memorandum also includes the exercise of fifth freedom traffic rights. In addition, both parties agreed to allow unrestricted, non-scheduled charter operations between the two countries.

Said Al Suwaidi, GCAA Director-General, stressed the importance of open sky agreements like the one signed with Gabon, in contributing to boosting trade, tourism and investment between the UAE and Africa.

Laila Ali bin Hareb Al Muhairi, Assistant of Director-General of Strategy and International Affair, said that the UAE ranks 2nd internationally in term of Open Skies agreements. "The UAE is driven more than ever to continue its international collaboration in air transport and shall continue its far-reaching and sound advances toward opening and liberating skies with countries of the world," she said.

The Gabonese delegation met a number of GCAA officials to discuss opportunities of collaboration among both states, notably in training. GCAA runs a training programme to host and train a number of African aviation professionals and has hosted trainees from Ghana, Liberia, Sudan and South Africa, among others, over the past two years.

So far, the UAE has air services agreements with over 168 countries, of which 122 are open skies or liberal agreements.
Source: WAM