Asian airlines devise plan to avert Y2K chaos in skies

Asian airlines devise plan to avert Y2K chaos in skies

SINGAPORE (AFP): Asia-Pacific airlines and civil aviation
bodies have devised a plan preventing congestion in the skies
ahead of the new millennium amid fears the "Y2K" bug will disrupt
air traffic, officials said Friday.

Under the plan incorporating the different time zones in Asia
with those of other regions, flights would be spaced out so that
air traffic control would be manageable if the Y2K bug plunged
aviation into turbulence.

"This plan will be activated as a precautionary measure in the
Asia-Pacific region during the most critical date -- 1 January
2000," said David Behrens, a senior official of the International
Air Transport Association (IATA).

"Flights will be flow-controlled. Airways supporting
geographic traffic flows will be simplified and de-conflicted,"
Behrens told an APEC symposium on the Year 2000.

The Y2K refers to the inability of older computer systems to
differentiate between 2000 and 1900 which threatens to disrupt
not only aviation but also banking and other services whose
computer systems are not Year 2000 compliant.

Behrens, IATA's assistant director of infrastructure for the
Asia-Pacific region, said the regional plan devised together with
the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) "will permit
the continuation of air traffic in the event there is degradation
of air traffic services."

IATA is the Montreal-based umbrella body for all airlines
while ICAO, also headquartered in the Canadian city, is a United
Nations body supervising civil aviation organizations.

ICAO has urged all countries to publish their Y2K readiness
plans by July.

Behrens said that "during the critical times when Y2K
disruptions may occur, aircraft will be metered and separated so
that air traffic control can safely manage any unanticipated
disruption."

In aviation language, "metered" means avoiding traffic jams
while "deconflicting" traffic means to ensure airways do not
cross paths.

"Everybody is going to share the pain. Everybody will know
what to do," Behrens said. "If anything goes wrong, we want
safety to be ensured. You got to remember that in the aviation
industry, we go to the extreme when we talk about safety."

He said airlines around the world had spent 2.3 billion
dollars in dealing with the Y2K problem.

Some 300 experts are attending the talks organized by the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to review the
region's Y2K readiness in five critical sectors - finance,
telecommunications, transport, customs and energy.

They will devise networks into which APEC economies could tap
to cope with possible problems caused by the millennium bug.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Peru, Singapore, South
Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

Behrens said the Y2K Asia-Pacific aviation contingency plan
would be activated according to time zones, beginning at 1000 GMT
on December 31 in Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa and parts of Russia.

This will be followed by the inclusion of Australia, Papua New
Guinea and the Solomon islands at 1200 GMT and China, Koreas,
Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Singapore at 1400
GMT.

Contingency procedures in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be activated at 1600
GMT.

Officials said each economy would have a national Y2K air
traffic management center to monitor and compile data relating to
the millennium problem with all reports to be sent to the
regional coordination center in Bangkok.

"What I want to hear is passengers getting off their airplanes
on New Year's day, looking at each other and say 'what is all
this about Y2K -- a big to do about nothing.' That will be music
to my ears," Behrens said.