Jordan Times
Sunday, December 19, 1999
Aviation authorities see no Y2K clouds in
Jordanian skies
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN — Travellers can enjoy a safe New Year's Eve flight in the Kingdom's airspace, as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced that it is fully prepared for the Y2K problem.
“Our air navigation systems, radar, telecommunications and oversight equipment are 100 per cent ready for the Millennium bug,” CAA Director General Jihad Rsheid said on Saturday.
Rsheid added that his staff had successfully concluded training for a contingency plan set up last year to deal with the Y2K problem, a programming glitch that experts fear will cause older computers and equipment with embedded circuits to malfunction when their internal clocks roll over to the year 2000.
He further said a specialised team in air navigation, airspace and airports would be monitoring the activities of the Queen Alia International Airport from an emergency centre on the premises.
Several experts from the International Air Transport Association (IAATA) have paid inspection visits to the CAA to check out its preparations for the turn of the Millennium.
According to IAATA reports, all three of Jordan's airports — Queen Alia International Airport, Marka Airport and Aqaba Airport — are fully prepared to handle air transport in the new century.
Rsheid said Jordan had been coordinating with the neighbouring countries by testing contingency plans on the regional and international levels.
He added that the management had also launched an awareness campaign among employees to prepare them to deal with any problems that might occur.
The CAA director further said that his inspectors had checked out and adjusted all of the organisation's operating systems and software, including air traffic control equipment, computer networks and typing machines, to make them Y2K compliant.
For its part, national flag carrier Royal Jordanian has said it is fully prepared for the millennium bug after completing the necessary changes to its equipment.
RJ Director General Nader Dahabi said recently that all pilots and air operations employees would receive training in the next few days to qualify them to deal with any emergency that could occur.
The airline has also retracted an earlier decision to cancel certain flights on the night of Dec. 31 and announced that it will go ahead with its regular schedule.