On 17 April 2015, PD jointly with DFS held an Air Conference in New York, on the ongoing transition in solicitation methodology for the UN's long term air charter requirements, which was opened by the ASG, OCSS and Director, LSD on behalf of ASG, DFS and attended by approximately 70 aviation companies from over 30 countries, as well as representatives from a dozen Member States.
The purpose of the conference was to share the lessons learnt from the first pilot RFP exercise recently concluded in support of MONUSCO as well as to update on the next steps for the roll-out of the new methodology. In addition to the significant turnout at the event, positive feedback was received from industry on the level of in-depth analysis and informative open dialogues with the operators through the conference and many welcomed the transition process with the merits it brought, especially on the opportunity for vendors to propose innovative and cost-efficient aircraft solutions to fulfil the logistics requirements of the UN field missions. The UN announced the plan to issue multiple RFPs over the next quarters.
