Aviation | Services | Long-Term Plan

long-term-plan-coverIn 2019, in response to Resolution 3 (Cg-17), Resolution 66 (Cg-17), Decision 43 (EC-68) and Recommendation 4 (CAeM-16), the WMO Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology (CAeM) - the precursor to the WMO Services Commission and Standing Committee on Services for Aviation - completed the development of an inaugural long-term plan for aeronautical meteorology.

CLICK HERE to download the latest long-term plan for aeronautical meteorology via the WMO e-Library (English only)

The intent of the long-term plan is to provide a framework upon which aeronautical meteorological service providers of WMO Members in particular, and the broader meteorology and aviation communities in general, can plan a progressive transformation from a conventional “product-centric” approach to a modern “information-centric” approach to service provision for aviation through to 2030 and beyond. 

The long-term plan pays due regard to sector-wide air transport progress envisaged over the coming decade or more and is complementary to the Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This complementarity is necessary to ensure that as ICAO’s vision for a globally interoperable, harmonized air traffic management system of the future becomes fully realized developments on the WMO side can and will occur in unison.

The long-term plan offers a long-term vision, a rolling strategy that will assist WMO, its Members and its partners ensure that aeronautical meteorological service provision evolves in a manner that harnesses scientific and technological advancement, both on the service providers’ side and the aeronautical users’ side. The long-term plan considers the implications that a projected increased growth in air traffic and a changing climate will have not only on aviation users’ needs for meteorological information services but also on the actual meteorological service provision that is to be supplied nationally, regionally and globally.

Taken as a whole, if appropriately implemented and adequately resourced, the developments outlined in the long-term plan offer the potential to better serve the needs and expectations of international civil aviation over the next decade and beyond and thereby ensure that WMO and its Members remain as integral, credible and relevant components within the implementation of ICAO’s GANP.

It is important to recognize that aviation, like meteorology, is a continually evolving sector, one that advances through scientific and technological progress and other factors such as the public’s continuing (growing) appetite to travel domestically and internationally by air. With each new edition of ICAO’s GANP/ASBU, issued once every 3 years, comes the potential for changes to the existing or future requirements for aeronautical meteorological service. It is essential therefore that the long-term plan responds to the evolutionary path that aviation has already embarked upon and that it is maintained through periodic review and update by the relevant WMO constituent bodies.

Useful link: ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan (ICAO Doc 9750) via GANP Portal


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