By IPS Correspondents
ABU DHABI, Mar 20 2003 (IPS)

United Arab Emirates (UAE) airspace will not be affected in the event of war against Iraq and airline traffic at the international airports will continue as usual, according to the Director General of the General Civil Aviation Authority, GCAA, . Ghanim Al Ghaith told reporters yesterday.

– We understand that everybody is worried about the situation. The GCAA Air Control Centre will publish updated news with regard to contingency routes to be used in case of war.

ôThis will be announced in time and distributed to airlines’ agencies in the countries and to the users of the airspace", Ghaith said, according to a report in UAE’s dailies.

Al Ghaith pointed out that the control centre handles an average of 800 aircraft a day and is considered the busiest in the Middle East. ôWe already have two contingency routes to be used, away from military areas. For example flights to Europe, Jeddah, Lebanon and Cairo in case of war will use the contingency route which will be safe, but the travel time will obviously be more", Ghaith added.

He explained that each country has its own contingency route plan. Everything is normal and is as usual so far. We are coordinating with neighboring countries. All the international airlines are still operating and we are ready for any emergency. We are working hard to make everything run normally. He noted that the contingency routes are safe and are controlled by radar.

ôThe UAE is in a strategic location and can easily use safe contingency routes", he said.

The official said that normally the flight paths eastward from the UAE are through Iran and Turkey, and westwards through Bahrain, Syria and Turkey. ôI think that flights through Iran will not be affected."

However, he said there could be diversions for airlines operating southwards. He noted that the GCAA offers its services to all airlines and no routes will be prioritized for any airline. ôEach airline has its emergency plan which it follows in the event of war," Ghaith added.

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