Managing the airspace

Airspace management over the territorial boundaries is a sovereign right of each state. Effective airspace management entails a fail-safe surveillance system across the entire length and breadth of the country to monitor flights originating, arriving and transiting through its skies. To regulate these flights, a command and control system is indispensable to identify the flight details, de-conflict the routes and warn the violators for consequences. In case, pilot of an aircraft enters the airspace without coordination and declines to abide by the established procedures of airspace management, then the fighter aircraft are diverted to enforce sanity.
The 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 has been managing its airspace since 2001. Now the USA is planning to stop managing Afghan airspace after the 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, the Afghan Aviation Authority does not have a capacity to take over this function. Apparently, international community is also not interested in further engagement and building the airspace management capacity of Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s minister for transport told the Wall Street Journal that its Aviation Authority lacked qualified air traffic controllers, therefore, Afghan aviation authority has to rely on external assistance.
To endure the airspace management operations, the USA requires $25 million for next six months.
To settle the issue, the Japanese government has conveyed its willingness to fund the “bridging contract” until the end of 2015. Concurrently, the 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 a few of the countries including India are bidding for the contract. The Afghan finance minister said, “We expect to conclude with one that offers the most competitive price compared to similar contracts regionally”. Probably, he was hinting towards the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has expressed willingness to manage 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 terrorists has been amply assured by its leadership. Mr Modi’s hostile rhetoric for its neighbours, Mr Ajit Dovel’s public statement to once again dismember Pakistan through terrorists and recent interview of Mr Parrikar, Defence Minister of India, to “form terrorist groups” 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 groups, air drop of weapons to sustain their maneuvers and influx of terrorists across to various countries. Consequently, India will export terrorism to Europe and blame the 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 of Afghanistan. Additionally, resources should be pooled to build the capacity and capability of Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority to assume the task of airspace management. Given a chance, the people of Afghanistan can attain this capability within a year.