Q1:
The Public Authority of Civil Aviation (PACA) of Oman is the government institution that is the responsible for the air commercial and private air transport of the Oman Sultanate. The PACA does not have any responsibility for the military air transport which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense and the Military Forces of Oman .
The PACA has created thanks to a Royal Decree of the Sultanate since 2013 with the intention to regulate all the civil aviation activities of the country and be aligned with the security and control requirements of the most important aviation and security agencies of the world. The referencing agencies are Transport Security Agency (TSA) of the United States of America, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The PACA divides its mission into three axes: regulation, growth and quality. The regulation sees all the aspects of security standards, environment and safety. The growth sees the promotion of the civil aviation industry between Omani destinations and between Omani and international destinations. The quality sees the achievement of quality excellent and continuous improvement in the civil aviation business in Oman.
The PACA has under its head several Operation Management (OM) decision areas that manage the operative issues of the Agency. An OM decision area receives from the CEO or head office the strategy and objectives of the main office and translates those requirements to an action plan. The PACA represents those are in nine directories that are responsible for the operations of the Agency and reports to the Chief Executive Officer of the Agency. The directorates of the PACA are:
■ Directorate General of Civil Aviation Regulation
■ Directorate of Strategic Planning
■ Directorate General of Support Services
■ Directorate General of Air Navigation
■ Legal Affairs Office
■ Directorate of Assurance and Control
■ Directorate General of Meteorology
■ Security and Public Relations Office
■ Dhofar Office
The analysis will be considering three OM decision areas of the PACA. Those are:
■ Directorate General of Civil Aviation Regulation: The goal of the Directorate is to accomplish the regulatory mission of the PACA. The regulations include the aviation safety, air transport and facilitation. The Directorate divides into six departments: Air Transport, Flights Safety, Air Navigation Safety, Aerodromes Safety, Aviation Security and Safety Regulations.
The Air Transport Department develops own regulations regarding the civil aviation industry according to international regulation and establishes a plan to develop them in the Oman territory. The department analyzes traffic and environment data of the Oman air industry. The department records all the consumers' complaints of the civil aviation industry and gives recommendations to the air operators to improve their operations.
The Flight Safety Department is the responsible for guaranteeing the safety in all the operations of the Civil Aviation industry of Oman. The Department supports the preparation of flight regulations, environment regulations (noise, greenhouse emissions) and executes inspections to national and international carriers.
The Air Navigation Safety Department oversees the airspace of Oman and outside Oman to guarantee the secure traffic of aircraft in the Oman air space. The office uses different technologies of localization tracking all the air traffic flowing between different airports of Oman and between Oman airports and international routes.
The Aerodromes Safety Department supports the operations of the airports, heliports and aerodromes. The international airport of Muscat is supported by this department in its daily operations. The new developments of airports, including the revamping and capacity increase of existing airports are supported by the Aerodromes Safety Department. The Department has an engineering unit that develops the conceptual design of the new airports and gives them to the developers and builders of the new airports that follow the guidelines of the Agency.
Aviation security and facilitation department: The department is the responsible of human resources facilitation in the Directorate, aerodromes, air carriers and operators of the industry. The department defines a plan and the required tasks for the facilitation between all the members of the industry. The facilitation completes the work of safety and regulation inside the industry.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation Regulation with more than three years in activity developed an interesting job inside the Oman Air industry. The Oman Air Industry need to have a national organization similar to the most important regulation and air security agencies in the world to guarantee those worldwide regulations inside the country. From 2013 until today the directorate has executed national ruling and legislation that agree with the international air industry traffic that gives incentives to the industry to grow and invest.
■ Directorate General of Support Services: The Support Services Area has three main functions which are: Human Resources, Finance and Technical Services. The Support Services is a staff unit inside the directory which has the administration of the resources of the Agency to guarantee the correct functioning of the same. Each function is developed by a specific department.
The Human Resources Department has the goal of the Human Resources Administration. The Human Resources Administration starts with the definition of the required number of people and skills for the Agency to guarantee the accomplishment of the objectives. The Department develops the strategy, administration and budgeting of the personnel of the agency. The current organization structure is defined by the Human Resources Department. All the policies that the Human Resources Department must be developed according to the Oman labor laws and to other institutions and agencies to guarantee hiring of the most capacities people for the job. The Department must hire professional and skilled people for the regulation, control and promotion of the Oman Civil Aviation Business.
The Finance Department has similar objectives than other Finance Departments in other organizations or companies in Oman and the world. The Finance Department work starts with the development of the annual budget to be considered by the Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors of the Agency and later with Oman Government Authorities. After the approval of the Budget, the department makes a budgetary control compare the current cash flow of the agency with the budget plan. The cash flow of the agency depends on the income and outcome of the company. The incomes are charges and fees that the agency applies to the Civil Aviation activity to support activities instead the outcomes are all the expenses of the Agency in all the activities the agency develops. The Department is the only authorized to have relations with the bank and financial institution to receive external finance support and assurance coverage.
The Technical Services is the responsible to give technical support to the other departments and directorates of the Agency. It manages the property management, investment projects, logistics, procurement and warehousing. The department is a mixture of Engineering and Procurement Department of other companies and institutions. The property management consists of the administration of the facilities where the agency is located and the aerodromes facilities where the Agency has responsibilities; the properties may be leased or owned by the Agency. The Investment projects include the construction and expansion of aerodromes inside the Oman Sultanate where it is included the Basic and Detailed Engineering . The logistics, procurement and warehousing functions depend on the results of the detailed engineering which are drawings and bill of materials. The Department acquires the equipment and services necessary for the improvement of the facilities of the Agency to improve the Civil Aviation business of Oman.
The Support Services is a mixture of Project Engineering and General Service Department. It has a wide range of technical responsibilities. The best recommendation for this directorate is to separate the Regular Services functions which have responsibility for the day-to-day operations with the investment and engineering function which do not depend on the day-to-day operation but in a long term strategy of the agency to grow.
■ Directorate General of Meteorology: The Directorate is the responsible for generating and providing timely and reliable information about weather condition to the other directorates of the Agency and to the stakeholders of the Agency as the aerodromes administrators and air carriers. The Meteorology requires experienced professionals in his area and close collaboration with international agencies as the World Metrological Organization (WMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). To develop its work, the Directorate has three departments: The Research & Development, Forecasting and Project & Technical Services. The Research department develops all the technical studies about the meteorological conditions in the Oman Air Space and surroundings generating a comprehensive data for further analysis. The previous and current meteorological data is necessary for the department to analyze them using advanced software and gives the necessary information to other departments and stakeholders of the agency for its decision making. The forecasting is the most important function of the Directorate because the forecasting allows the Agency and stakeholders to have early warnings and action plan when the meteorological conditions could be hazardous for the air traffic. The data analysis and forecasting avoid potential incidents and accidents in the Oman air space improving the security of the Oman civil aviation. The Project & Technical Services has a similar structure than the Directorate of Support Services; it develops the engineering, procurement and execution of projects related to the meteorological infrastructure according to the international specifications of ICAO and WMO and the relation cost-benefit between the infrastructure and the specificities of the Oman territory.
Previously it is possible to find two similar functions in two different directorates. It is necessary to make a revision to the staff and support structure of the Agency where two or more department executes similar functions for different functions. In other agencies, institutions and companies, the technical staff of Engineering and Projects is an independent office which serves to all the departments concentrating the professional human resources required for that function. The other reason is necessary an independent Engineering and Project area is the work cycle. Different to day-to-day operations as Meteorology and Regulation issues in the PACA, the Engineering and Project Execution are not a day-to-day operation but depends on an annual budget provision to be executed.
Q2:
Strengths of the PACA:
■ It has the support of the Oman Sultanate to operate and to have financial support, thanks to the Royal Decree 94-2003 emitted by the Sultan of Oman. That support gives the required independence of the agency and a strong technical profile in its work.
■ It is the only agency in its type in Oman; there are no competitors for the Agency.
■ It has a structure, given by directorates and departments which cover all the necessary areas where the agency has influence: regulations, strategic planning, support services, legal affairs, air navigation, control, meteorology, security and public relations.
Weakness of PACA:
■ The agency has less than fourteen years from its foundation lacking of the experience of other international agencies in the world, for example, the Transport Security Agency (TSA) of the United States of America which has more experiences in a developed air-industry market.
■ The Oman air industry is less developed than other countries as United Arab Emirates, China or the United States of America, giving to the agency less experience for the proposal of new procedures and regulations. Most of the procedures and regulations of the agency are adopted by other agencies as TSA and ICAO.
■ There are several overlapping functions between the directorates of the PACA. Previously mentioned, the functions of project and engineering are overlapped in two or more departments of the Agency.
Opportunities in PACA:
■ the growth in the air industry with the construction of new airports and the increase in air traffic brings opportunities to the agency to be more relevant to the international air industry.
Threads in PACA:
■ The existence of only one major airline (state-owned) in the country Oman Air increase the risks of interest conflicts between the government, the major airlines and the Agency.
Bibliography
EPCenginner, 2015. EPC - Engineering Procurement Construction. [Online] Available at: http://www.epcengineer.com/definition/132/epc-engineering-procurement-construction [Accessed: 28 March 2016].
Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA), 2016. Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA). [Online] Available at: http://www.paca.gov.om [Accessed: 29 March 2016].
