BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 15. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Azerbaijan Air Navigation Services Department of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) started joint work on development and implementation of the National Airspace Strategy (NAS) of Azerbaijan, the press service of AZAL told TurkicWorld .

Thus, as part of this initiative, which aims to provide a range of benefits to air passengers, the already existing long-term cooperation between the two organizations will be strengthened.

At the same time, joint activities will support the development of the national economy and the competitiveness of the aviation sector in Azerbaijan. This cooperation will contribute to the achievement of the global goals for the sustainable development of air transport.

According to IATA forecasts, demand for passenger air transport in Azerbaijan is expected to grow by 80 percent over the next two decades. In accordance with this, the volume of air traffic will also grow at the same pace. For example, transit traffic in the airspace of Azerbaijan has already shown high dynamics.

Meeting the growing demand for air travel while maintaining flight safety, managing costs, reducing CO2 emissions and costs requires Azerbaijan to further modernize its airspace structure and air traffic control (ATC) system.

The Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku served 360,000 passengers in January 2023, which was the January all-time record. Since the beginning of 2023, the passenger traffic of all international airports in the country has exceeded 420,000 people.

Azerbaijan's AZAL and Buta Airways air carriers transported 132,000 and 47,000 passengers, respectively. Furthermore, national airlines carried out 37 percent of international flights.