Cairo's aviation hub EGYPT'S aviation sector has recently attracted the attention of the world's two most important aviation international bodies; the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). ICAO approved last week the Egyptian Faculty for Pilots, affiliated to the Egyptian Aviation Academy (EAA), as a regional centre for the Middle East and Africa. The approval, the first in 20 years, followed the implementation of a joint project for cooperation and technical support between ICAO and EAA. "After extensive inspections and revision missions by ICAO experts, the international organisation became convinced that our facilities and programmes fulfil the training requirements of a regional centre, as well as meeting the quality and safety criteria," stated EAA President Hassan Mohamed Hassan. The joint project will continue in the next phase to assist EAA in obtaining certification by ICAO of other faculties, such as Air Controllers and Aviation Management. Meanwhile, IATA signed an agreement with EgyptAir few days later approving the national carrier's training facilities as an IATA regional centre to train flight crew and staff. Magdi Sabri, IATA representative for the Middle East and Africa, highlighted this important development for the carrier's training sector. "EgyptAir was among the first airlines to move seriously towards applying our recommendations with regards to e-ticketing," stated Sabri. "They now issue only one-third of total tickets in paper, while the other two-thirds are e-tickets." The IATA agreement will bring more investment to the training sector, which is expected to attract the business of both Arab and African carriers. Best in the skies LONDON'S air transport research and advisory, SkyTrax, has revealed the 2007 world's best airline awards. The awards are based on results from the company's World Airline Survey conducted between August, 2006 and June, 2007, measuring 35 different aspects of passenger satisfaction for an airline's product and service. More than 14 million responses worldwide were tabulated. The World's Best Airline Awards regional category refers to domestic or international flights within a specific region. SkyTrax named Midwest Airlines as the best for North America; South African Airways for Africa; Bangkok Airways for Asia; Emirates for Middle East; Copa Airlines for Central America; LAN for South America and Jet Airways for India and Central Asia. Shelving paper tickets THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association (IATA) has placed its last order of 16.5 million paper tickets to supply 60,000 accredited travel agents worldwide until 31 May, 2008. IATA Director-General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani insisted in a statement that, "this is the last call for paper tickets". About 38 months ago, IATA launched the drive for 100 per cent e- ticketing, which went from 16 per cent in June, 2004, to 84 per cent today. The move is expected to save $9 per passenger annually, adding up to $3 billion in savings for the industry. "We will move to an all-electronic ticketing system by 1 June, 2008," confirmed Bisignani.
