IATA Boss Wants Safety Audit Mandatory For African Airlines

Lagos-International-Airport

Lagos-International-Airport(MMIA)

Simon Ateba and Chioma Okike

The International Air Transport Association, IATA, on Tuesday, urged African governments to make operational safety audit also known as IOSA mandatory for all airlines to improve the continent’s appalling safety record.

Tony Tyler, IATA Director General and CEO, who spoke in Lagos, western Nigeria, argued that in 2012 none of the 25 IATA members in Africa had an accident.

The IATA Operational Safety Audit, IOSA, is mandatory for all IATA members.

“None of the 384 airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry had a jet lull loss – including some three dozens carriers on this continent,” Tyler said at an event labelled Aviation Day Africa.

“I take this opportunity to urge them (African governments) to make IOSA mandatory,” Tyler said.

Africa, he said, remains the continent with the least flights but with the highest accidents.

Related News

“In 2012 African airlines had one accident with Western-built jet aircraft for every 270,000 flights. Globally, the industry average was one accident for about every five million flights,” Tyler said.

Put another way, he said, African aviation accounted for only 3 percent of global traffic but nearly 50 percent of the fatalities with Western-built jets.

“It is clear that IOSA is making a difference – not just in Africa, but in safety globally,” Tyler said while urging African airline to embrace its safety audit.

He said although IOSA can assist governments in safety oversight, it is not a substitute for effective safety oversight by civil aviation authorities.

Tyler called on African governments to meet the Abuja Declaration’s 2015 for safer skies on the continent.

The Abuja Declaration focused on establishing independent and sufficiently funded civil aviation authorities, implementing effective and transparent safety oversight systems by all African states and completing IOSA by all African airlines as well as implementing accident prevention measures focuses on runway safety and loss of control. It also urged African governments to implement flight data analysis and safety management systems by all service providers.

IATA boss also called on African governments and private stakeholders to partners to grow the aviation industry on the continent, explaining the industry provides 6.7 million jobs and some US68 billion dollars.

Also at the two-day conference were the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, George Uriesi and others.

Load more