19 th Steering Committee Meeting COSCAP- SA

1. 19th Steering Committee Meeting COSCAP- SA Presentation from CAA Nepal

2. Where is Nepal ? Area: Almost 57000 square mile Population: Almost 30 million CHINA NEPAL INDIA

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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.

20. Nepal would appreciate any help from COSCAP or member states to assist us in determining ATC and Air Route capacity. Thank you