Major Airlines, Airports Y2K-Ready-ICAO

Updated 11:53 AM ET September 21, 1999

By Andy Soloman

HANOI, September 21 (Reuters) - Major players in world aviation are ready for any impact from the millennium computer bug but some small outfits appear unprepared, the president of the International Civil Aviation Organization said Tuesday.

Assad Kotaite told Reuters he was confident that at midnight on Dec. 31 planes would keep flying, airports would keep operating and navigation and air traffic control systems would function normally.

"There is an important percentage of ICAO member states who reported that ATS (Air Traffic Service) providers are Y2K ready, or expect to be ready before the Y2K changeover," he said.

Y2K is another name for the millennium bug.

Kotaite said the findings would be available in ICAO's first major Y2K status report, entitled "Aviation Year 2000 Readiness," and due to be published next week.

The Y2K glitch is expected to cause malfunctions because older computer software only allocated two digits to specify the year in a date, and 2000 may be read as 1900.

Kotaite said a majority of the 1,320 international airports and 1,030 air transport operators under the 185-nation ICAO umbrella had responded with Y2K information.

The top 50 air transport operators, accounting for 85 percent of all international passenger kilometers in 1998, were Y2K-ready, as were airports which handled 84 percent of international aircraft movement in the same year, he said.

The Montreal-based ICAO is a U.N.-affiliated group that sets the standards in world aviation.

Some 35 ICAO members have yet to provide Y2K preparedness information, which had been due on July 1, Kotaite said, adding that with the exception of Russia, most of these were small countries with limited aviation networks.

"There are definitely areas and regions which are better prepared than others," he said.

"Once the 35 states see the report and see the (Y2K) status I'll be surprised if they do not provide information to ICAO," he added, saying he expected details soon from Russia on air traffic control, airlines and airports.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority has listed the 35 countries as: Albania, Angola, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Burundi, Cambodia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Congo, Fiji, Guinea, Iraq, Kiribati, Kyrgystan, Lesotho, Libya, Micronesia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Naura, Nicaragua, Palau, New Guinea, Qatar, Russia, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Kotaite, in Hanoi for the 35th conference of Directors General of Civil Aviation, Asia and Pacific Regions, said he had approved comprehensive contingency plans for the crossover.

"We are taking all possible measures in order that the flights crossing from the 20th century into the 21st century will continue to be safe," he said.

"The changeover will take place in a very smooth way, I'm sure that as usual on New Year's Eve everybody will celebrate."

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 21, 1999