Minister of Transport HE Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti.
Doha: The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) on Wednesday signed the operational agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, for activating the Doha Flight Information Region (FIR) and connecting it with FIRs of these countries.
The agreements mean that all the stakeholders for the activation of the Doha FIRs operational processes, which will begin this September 8, are now complete. Last April, Qatar signed a similar agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The agreement comes in the context of executing the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Councils historic decision, made during the Councils 10th meeting in its 225th Session held last March, to establish a Doha FIR, after more than five years of deliberations.
Since that decision was made, Qatar has over the past period been in communication with stakeholders in all countries and held several meetings with neighboring countries for coordination purposes to enhance cooperation and end up with activating a Doha FIR by signing bilateral agreements to regulate operational processes and connect the Doha FIR with its counterparts in these countries.
Minister of Transport HE Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti praised the efforts made by all parties toward signing these agreements, asserting that Qatar is ready for the Doha FIR activation, in addition to adding new air routes and increasing the capacity of both the aircraft holding area and search and rescue area in line with the Doha FIRs new dimensions, thus keeping pace with the development and achievements that Qatars civil aviation undergoes.
His Excellency added that Qatars civil aviation industry has significantly progressed in terms of modernizing its air navigation systems in step with latest universal specifications, thus fulfilling the countrys air traffic requirements and showcasing an outstanding level of services.
His Excellency asserted that Qatar and brotherly and friendly neighboring countries have the best world aviation systems.
