THE ORIENT AIRLINES Association (OAA) wants to establish a co-ordinated reporting system to reduce the time taken to warn airlines of volcanic activity in the Asia-Pacific region.
"What you have now is a variety of different authorities monitoring volcanic activity, and the last thing they do is pick up the phone and tell the airlines," says OAA technical director Robert Peel.
An ad hoc group has been formed by the OAA's Technical Committee to establish new procedures and lines of communication between the Association's 16 member carriers. It also wants to improve contact with other organisations, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
OAA airlines with 24h despatch desks will be asked to issue notifications of fresh volcanic activity in their respective countries to other member carriers, IATA and Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Source: Flight International
