Africa’s safety record improves but disappoints

African airfreight safety is improving but it’s still nine times worse than the global average, Tony Tyler, Iata’s director general and CEO said in Dakar, Senegal recently. According to Tyler, in 2011 the continent experienced an average of one accident for every 305 000 flights using Western-built jet aircraft. This was an improvement over 2010, when the average was one accident for every 135 000 flights. “It should be as safe to travel by air in Africa as it is in any other part of the world,” said Tyler. In May this year, Iata, with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) and a host of other organisations, committed to an Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan aimed at addressing safety deficiencies and strengthening regulatory oversight in the region by 2015. “The goal of the Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan is to achieve world-class safety levels across Africa by 2015,” said Tyler. The plan was endorsed as part of the ‘Abuja Declaration’ by the Ministerial meeting on Aviation Safety and Security of the African Union in July. The next step is ratification at the Assembly of the African Union in January 2013.” The plan’s priorities range from adoption and implementation of an effective and transparent regulatory oversight system including mandating the implementation of the Iata Operational Safety Audit (Iosa), to implementation of runway safety measures and training on preventing loss of control. Tyler believes that these priorities address the most pressing issues identified through analysis by Icao and Iata of Africa’s safety performance between 2006 and 2010. INSERT The goal of the Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan is to achieve world-class safety levels across Africa by 2015.