UAE urges Gulf Arab states to well-coordinate in air traffic

Emirates Airline said Saturday that the Gulf Arab countries are lagging behind Europe and the United States in relation to a well-coordinated air traffic control system to optimize plane movements in the skies.

Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, and Tim Clark, the president of Dubai's government-controlled carrier Emirates Airline told CNN in its program.

Speaking on CNN's biweekly program Marketplace Middle East aired earlier, Griffiths said the air traffic control provision is actually Dubai international airport's biggest single strategic risk.

"It's not that they can't get more throughput, but it is about the coordination between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) individual airports and their air traffic control authorities and all the different states around the country," said Griffiths.

"The sky control system of the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and the similar approach in Europe are more advanced," he noted. "We are little bit behind that, but that's something we are working very hard to fix."

In the same transmission, Tim Clark agreed that the airlines in the Gulf countries need to tackle the sky control problem.

"All the Gulf states recognize that they need to sort this one out, open the corridors, and invest into equipment which allows us to deal with the growing traffic situation," he said.

Both executives, however, highlighted Dubai international's position as the world's busiest airport in 2016, saying it hosted 83.6 million passengers, up 7.2 percent from 2015.

On the question of a possible saturation of the skies, Clark said he pointed to the air traffic coordination again.

"You may see the curve flattening in the coming five years, but I think there is still potential if you look at the single airspace in Europe and the United States. As long as the air traffic coordination issue is not resolved in, any potential to grow is diminished," he said. Endit