Airspace Management – Explosion of Terrorism

By Muhammad Saleem

Airspace Management over the territorial boundaries is a sovereign right of each state. Effective airspace management entails, a failsafe surveillance system across the entire length and breadth of the country to monitor the flights originating, arriving and transiting through its skies. To regulate these flights, a command and control system is indispensible to identify the flight details, de-conflict the routes and warn the violators for consequences. In case, pilot of an aircraft enters the airspace management, then the fighter aircraft are diverted to enforce sanity.

Afghan Airspace connects Far East, Middle East and Central Asia. Being a war ravaged country; it does not have native airspace management system.  Therefore, USA is managing its airspace since 20041. Now USA is panning to stop managing Afghan airspace after expiry of the contract by the end of June, 2015, other than the flights operating to and from Afghanistan, its airspace can earn about $40 Million annually from air traffic that crosses Afghanistan above 29,000 feet. So far, Afghan  aviation authority does not have a capacity to take over tis function. Apparently, international community is also not interested in further engagement and building the airspace management capacity of Afghanistan. Afghanistan minster of transport, told Wall Street Journal that its Aviation Authority lacked qualified air traffic controller, Therefore, afghan aviation authority has to rely on external assistance.

To endure the airspace management operations USA requires $25 million for next six months. To settle the issue, Japanese Govt has conveyed her willing to fund the “bridging contract” until the end of 2015. Concurrently, Afghan government is in the process of reviewing bids for the contract. The contract may cost about $200 million for a period of five years. Reportedly few of the countries including India are bidding for the contract. Afghan Finance Minster   said “we expect to conclude with one that offers the most competitive price compared to similar contract regionally”. Probably, he was hinting towards Airport Authority of India (AAI) , which has expressed willingness  to mange Afghanistan’s air space.

Afghanistan is an important air corridor on the Europe-Asia route that is crossed by almost 300 aircraft daily. India’s commitment to support terrorist has been amply assured by its leadership. Mr Modi’s hostile rhetoric for its neighbors, Mr Ajit Dovel’s public statement to once again dismember Pakistan through terrorists and recent interview of Mr. Parrikar, defense minister of India to “form terrorist group “ is a case in point. Imagine, the plight of regional and intra-regional countries, if India is assigned the contract of managing the airspace of Afghanistan. The implications would be complex, serious and far-reaching. It could promote human trafficking, drug trafficking for financing terrorist group, air drop of weapons to sustain their maneuvers and influx of terrorists across to various counties. Consequently, India will export terrorism in Europe     and blame Muslim Community. It would be dangerous for world peace and neighboring countries. It warrants immediate attention of all the regional and international community to bear the cost of airspace management to Afghanistan. Additionally, resources should be pooled to build the capacity of capability of Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority to assume the task of Airspace management. Given a chance, people of Afghanistan can attain this capability within a year timeframe.