Gunship
17th Nov 2005, 05:31
Well this comes as no surprise does it ?Cape Town - Only three airlines in Africa - SAA, Kenya Airways and Egyptair - have completed the safety audit run by the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
Giovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of Iata, this week urged airline operators on the continent to submit themselves to the safety audit, a thorough check on the state of their equipment and safety procedures.
British Airways/Comair, which is the second-largest airline in southern Africa, was not named by Bisignani, but Gidon Novick, the executive director of its kulula.com division, explained: "BA/Comair is a franchise holder of BA and has to go through a regular audit carried out by BA to ensure that it complies with BA's safety standards."
Industry sources said local civil aviation authorities, who keep a check on commercial airlines, were widely respected and the country's airlines were considered to have high safety standards.
Iata had made it a priority to improve the safety standards of African airlines and reduce the number of fatal crashes on the continent, said Bisignani.
He appealed to governments and airlines to work together with his association to achieve this. In Europe, legislators agreed yesterday to blacklist some African airlines on safety grounds and bar them from landing in European countries.
Bisignani was speaking at the annual conference of the Association of African Airlines. He pointed out that 25 percent of all accidents in which aircraft were lost last year occurred in Africa, though Africa accounted for only 4.5 percent of global air traffic.
He urged all African airlines to go through the Iata Operational Safety Audit, which the International Civil Aviation Organisation was encouraging states to adopt as a benchmark.
Stressing that safety was the most urgent problem faced by the aviation industry - even ahead of soaring fuel prices that would mean an estimated $7.4 billion (R50.28 billion) in airline losses this year - he said a number of African airlines had already been blacklisted by some European countries, which would not allow them to land in their territories.
These included Mozambican national airline LAM. Iata did not support blacklists, preferring to work with airlines and governments to improve safety standards, Bisignani said, but blacklists "are a political reality".
Admitting that it would be difficult for some cash-strapped African airlines to meet Iata Operational Safety Audit standards, Bisignani said Iata had launched a partnership for safety with a $3 million investment to identify the gaps between Iata Operational Safety Audit standards and current practices in some airlines.
"African airlines are Iata's first priority and we are moving fast to assist.
"Partnership for safety seminars have already been held in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar and Lagos, and we will do one in Libreville next month."
However, Bisignani said, Iata needed to see more commitment from the airlines and their governments. He was worried and disappointed that out of 140 airlines, representing nearly 70 percent of total world air traffic, that had successfully passed the audit, only three were in Africa.
"I want to see all of Africa's carriers in the Iata Operational Safety Audit process by our next annual general meeting in June. And I encourage Africa's governments to make good use of the Iata Operational Safety Audit to strengthen their regulations and pay more attention to safety."
An Iata representative in South Africa said that until now some countries in Europe had individually blacklisted airlines regarded as unsafe and barred them from their territories.
There was no common standard and, now that blacklists were to apply throughout the EU, Iata would press for the Iata Operational Safety Audit to be used as a benchmark.
Link (http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2997679)
Giovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of Iata, this week urged airline operators on the continent to submit themselves to the safety audit, a thorough check on the state of their equipment and safety procedures.
British Airways/Comair, which is the second-largest airline in southern Africa, was not named by Bisignani, but Gidon Novick, the executive director of its kulula.com division, explained: "BA/Comair is a franchise holder of BA and has to go through a regular audit carried out by BA to ensure that it complies with BA's safety standards."
Industry sources said local civil aviation authorities, who keep a check on commercial airlines, were widely respected and the country's airlines were considered to have high safety standards.
Iata had made it a priority to improve the safety standards of African airlines and reduce the number of fatal crashes on the continent, said Bisignani.
He appealed to governments and airlines to work together with his association to achieve this. In Europe, legislators agreed yesterday to blacklist some African airlines on safety grounds and bar them from landing in European countries.
Bisignani was speaking at the annual conference of the Association of African Airlines. He pointed out that 25 percent of all accidents in which aircraft were lost last year occurred in Africa, though Africa accounted for only 4.5 percent of global air traffic.
He urged all African airlines to go through the Iata Operational Safety Audit, which the International Civil Aviation Organisation was encouraging states to adopt as a benchmark.
Stressing that safety was the most urgent problem faced by the aviation industry - even ahead of soaring fuel prices that would mean an estimated $7.4 billion (R50.28 billion) in airline losses this year - he said a number of African airlines had already been blacklisted by some European countries, which would not allow them to land in their territories.
These included Mozambican national airline LAM. Iata did not support blacklists, preferring to work with airlines and governments to improve safety standards, Bisignani said, but blacklists "are a political reality".
Admitting that it would be difficult for some cash-strapped African airlines to meet Iata Operational Safety Audit standards, Bisignani said Iata had launched a partnership for safety with a $3 million investment to identify the gaps between Iata Operational Safety Audit standards and current practices in some airlines.
"African airlines are Iata's first priority and we are moving fast to assist.
"Partnership for safety seminars have already been held in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar and Lagos, and we will do one in Libreville next month."
However, Bisignani said, Iata needed to see more commitment from the airlines and their governments. He was worried and disappointed that out of 140 airlines, representing nearly 70 percent of total world air traffic, that had successfully passed the audit, only three were in Africa.
"I want to see all of Africa's carriers in the Iata Operational Safety Audit process by our next annual general meeting in June. And I encourage Africa's governments to make good use of the Iata Operational Safety Audit to strengthen their regulations and pay more attention to safety."
An Iata representative in South Africa said that until now some countries in Europe had individually blacklisted airlines regarded as unsafe and barred them from their territories.
There was no common standard and, now that blacklists were to apply throughout the EU, Iata would press for the Iata Operational Safety Audit to be used as a benchmark.
Link (http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2997679)