Baku, September 27, AZERTAC

A delegation of the senior management of CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organization), headed by Director General Jeff Poole, arrived in Baku on a working visit on September 27.

The guests got acquainted with Azerbaijan's civil aviation facilities, including the Azeraeronavigation Air Traffic Control Center, Airspace Supervision & Efficiency Center (ASEC) and the new airport complex of the Heydar Aliyev International Airport.

At the meeting with AZAL President Jahangir Asgarov, the issues of holding the Global ATM Summit in Baku were discussed. Also, the parties discussed the prospects for cooperation between the Azeraeronavigation Air Traffic Control Center (AZANS) and CANSO, including the issues of joining of AZANS to the CANSO Europe Executive Committee, as well as Azerbaijani specialists’ participation in the working groups of the organization.

Creation of CANSO joint training center and opening of air traffic control center using artificial intelligence by 2020 Summit was also discussed at the meeting. A development strategy, which is currently elaborated only until 2020, will be adopted at 2020 Summit in Baku.

Jeff Poole noted the great achievements of Azerbaijan's civil aviation, which is becoming more attractive to the global aviation community. Airlines increasingly prefer to fly over the territory of Azerbaijan, which provides a high level of flight safety thanks to the most modern system of air navigation equipment. It is forecasted that flights over Azerbaijan will increase in the following years.

Following the meeting, Jahangir Asgarov and Jeff Poole signed the agreement on holding the CANSO Air Navigation Summit in Baku from June 8 to June 12, 2020.

The candidacy of Baku to host CANSO AGM-2020 was unanimously chosen at a meeting of the Executive Committee (consists of the leaders of the FAA (USA), air navigation systems of Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, Argentina, civil aviation administrations of Singapore, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia) in Bangkok. Over 70 countries voted for the candidacy of Baku during the CANSO general meeting.

The annual Global ATM Summit is one of the most prestigious events in the field of civil aviation. Over 250 participants from more than 100 countries take part at the summit. Due to its scale this event is often compared with the Olympic Games in the field of aviation.

Such a large-scale and important summit in the history of Azerbaijan's civil aviation will be held for the first time in Baku. CANSO's decision to entrust the holding of the international summit of great importance in Baku is a clear indicator of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s constant attention and care to the civil aviation, as well as the successes achieved in this sphere.

The structural subdivision of CJSC Azerbaijan Airlines - Azeraeronavigation (AZANS) is one of the key air traffic control departments linking Europe and Asia. Annually over 90,000 transit flights are carried out over the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Favorable geographical location of Azerbaijan also allowed to open the Airspace Supervision & Efficiency Center (ASEC), the only one in the former Soviet Union, in the territory of the country.