Foxcotte, B737, Welliewanger and Capetonian,
Many thanks for your fantastic feed back
It is evident, the East African community (EAC; Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda) and the South African development community (SADC) has made more progress in areas of regional economic co-operation than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
However, a close inspection of the 15 members of the SADC will reveal it hosts Africa’s two extremes of the aviation safety spectrum; South Africa accepted as the safest and DRC accused of being at the bottom of the rung.
The Capetown protocol (effective 2006 ) seems to have some degree of success in facilitating procurement of modern aircraft, but with limited access to credit how far will it go for African carriers? The Banjul accord group (29 Jan 2004) is limited to only English speaking 7 countries in West Africa. Yamoussoukro decision; initially consummated August 2000 is yet to be fully implemented by all members over 10 years after coming into effect.
Does this mean :
- Wrong Strategy?
- Poor implementation? or
- Adverse external circumstances ?; Global recession, regional conflict,
For the first time in 8 years, African carriers collectively recorded $100Million profit last year. This is good news for some African operators.
IATA is forecasting a 6.5% growth in commercial international traffic for the area this year. This is even better news for foreign operators who have invested in opening more than 20 new routes to African destinations.Obviously, these carriers are not coming flying into Africa for charity; not with Lagos London noted as the most profitable routes for the British carriers.
In examining the Plethora of causes of the poor safety regime, what are your thoughts on these and any more causes that come to mind:
- Lack of common aviation policy objectives within the regions' governments
- Regional conflict and Political instability
- Lack of skilled man-power
- Poor infrastructure and navigation deficiencies
- Widespread Corruption
- Multiple disharmonious regulations and poor training standards
- Lack of synergy within the regional airlines