The first day of the 30th IFATCA Regional Meeting of the Africa Middle-East Region started with official opening remarks from Mr. Skander Khalfallah, President of the Tunisian Air Traffic Controllers Association – Association Tunisienne des Contrôleurs de la Circulation Aérienne (ATCCA), Mr. Lofti Mhicen, CEO of the Office de l’Aviation Civile et des Aéroports de Tunisie (OACA), Mr. Fateh Bekhti, IFATCA Executive Vice-President Africa Middle East (AFM), Mr. Duncan Alex Auld, President and CEO of IFATCA, and His Excellency Mr. Rene Trabelsi, Minister of Transport and Tourism who officially opened the meeting.
The event then continued with two presentations from the Tunisian CAA (Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) de la Tunisie), an overview of the air navigation system in Tunisia provided by the national Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), and a presentation of the situation in Tunisia offered by the local Member Association, ATCCA. OACA then presented their training support initiative for the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO) Member States. All presentations were focused on the need for more comprehensive training in the African region and highlighted regional cooperation as a key enabler for achieving such goal.
In the afternoon, a discussion took place on the many items on the work programme of the Professional and Legal Committee (PLC) and Technical and Operational Committee (TOC) of IFATCA, presented by Mr. Jean-François Lepage, Liaison Officer to the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, and an overview of the IFATCA Equality, Diversity, and Ethics Task Force (EDETF), was presented by Mr. Sverre Ivar Elsbak.
Mr. Peter Van Rooyen, Executive Vice-President Professional, gave an in-depth presentation on the many workshops offered by the Federation. This was followed by a presentation from Mr. Mohamed Smaoui, Regional Deputy Director- ICAO Cairo office in Egypt, joined by representatives from IFALPA and IFATSEA, who shared their experiences and initiatives with regards to training in the aviation industry. Mr. Hennie Marais, Chief Air Traffic Services ATNS South Africa gave an entertaining and thought provoking presentation on the links between training and professionalism in aviation.
The day concluded with presentations from our sponsors: United ATS, and Indra.