GCAA hosts safety event on call sign confusion

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The meeting, which is organized by the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO, was attended by representatives from ICAO, IATA, EUROCONTROL, along with representatives from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, besides a number of air traffic control managers from the region.
Commenting on the first meeting, GCAA Director General, H.E Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, stated: “The importance of such a meeting is to deal with the main safety issues in the region with regards to Call Sign Confusion, which is and has always been GCAA’s top priority.”
He added: “The Call Signs Similarity is one of the topics that have interested the international aviation community recently. Due to the rapid aviation growth witnessed lately, similarity started to jeopardize aviation safety. We anticipate that the result of the meeting will be a constructive methodology to limit call signs similarities risks.
Ahmed Al Jallaf, GCAA Assistant Director General of Air Navigation Services and the head of the UAE delegation to the meeting said that the meeting on Call Signs Similarity confusion is based on a suggestion by the GCAA to ICAO to seek solutions of flight call signs similarity to protect the country and the region’s air traffic operations from such a risk.
Al Jallaf added that the UAE has presented a working paper to the meeting included the nation’s experience dealing with this issue and efforts in minimizing potential confusion, pointing out that Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Center has invented a system parallel to the call sign system that allows the controller to change the call sign of a certain flight in case of similarity with another.
He also expressed his full confidence that the UAE and the regional group efforts would encourage world aviation decision makers to deal with this uprising issue.