Coordination meeting of the Ndjamena and Niamey FIRs 

The 9th coordination meeting of the Ndjamena Flight Information Region (FIR) coupled with the 8th coordination meeting of Niamey Flight Information Region were jointly held from March 14 to 18, 2016 in Ndjamena (Chad).

The meeting gathered a hundred of participants from ASECNA Operational centres (Douala, Garoua, Niamey, Ndjamena, Sarh, Abidjan, Nouakchott, Brazzaville, Ouagadougou, Bamako, Lomé, Bangui), from the ICAO regional Office for West and Central Africa (WACAF) and neighbouring centres of the Civil Aviation Authority (Ghana) as well as from the Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (Nigeria), and national experts of the Civil Aviation of Chad, Cameroon and Congo.
The following points were on the agenda:

•  Review of the conclusions and recommendations of the 7th N’Djamena FIR and those of the 8th meeting of the Niamey FIR;
   Air Traffic Management ;
•  Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) ;
•  Meteorological Assistance to Air Navigation (MET) ;
•  Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) ;
•  Search and Rescue Services (SAR) ;
•  Civil / military Coordination.

The plenary sessions were marked by presentations on activities that led to passionate discussions. 

For in-depth explanations, issues concerning the areas of ATM/AIM, CNS, MET and SAR were further discussed in workshops organized solely for that purpose. At the end of proceedings, participants adopted a series of recommendations whose objective was to build on the operational gains of control centres.

At the opening ceremony, the Director of Technical Operation of ASECNA Madame Claire Josette OBAME-EDOU stressed the importance of the meeting, saying that “it translates our common willingness to continue appraising the quality of air navigation services. It is also helps define in a coordinated way, improvement actions relative to the quality of services provided to user for better flights safety”.

The Minister of Civil Aviation and meteorology of Chad, Madam Haoua Acyl Ahmat Akhabach who chaired the opening session, on her part, magnified the prime role being played by ASECNA in providing quality air navigation services to the great benefit of member States, whose airspace is managed by ASECNA.

At this juncture, it is worthy to recall that ASECNA handles a total airspace of 16.1 million squared kilometers comprising six (6) Flight Information Regions (FIRs) namely Niamey, Ndjamena, Dakar “Terrestrial”, Dakar “Oceanic”, Antananarivo and Brazzaville.