IATA to meet African Heads of State in Abuja over aviation safety

BY OLUSEGUN KOIKI (NATIONAL MIRROR)

The International Air Transport Association will next month meet with African Heads of State in Abuja to adopt the Africa Stra-tegic Improvement Action Plan for the country.

The association’s Senior Vice President for Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, Mr. Gunther Matschnigg said that the meet-ing was important following the recent accidents in Nigeria and Ghana. IATA however noted improve-ment in safety performance in Africa, with accident rates fall-ing to 61 per cent.Latest safety statistics from IATA’s Safety Report 2011 show a dramatic improvement in safety performance in Africa with accident rates falling 61 per cent to 6,17 accidents per million departures, sharply down from the 15,68 per million in 2010.

The latest safety statistics from the IATA Safety Report 2011, published this year, show a dramatic improvement in the safety performance in Africa last year with total accident rates falling 61 per cent to 6.17 accidents per million depar-tures, sharply down from the 15.68 per million in 2010. Even with the most recent accident in Nigeria with Dana Air, in which more than 153 people were killed, the over-all safety performance of the sector is higher than last year, Matschnigg said in Beijing.

There is growing recognition among African states that with-out a reliable and safe airline in-dustry the development of their economies will not be as robust as it could be as people and com-panies will be less inclined to travel or contract the services of companies that are unsafe.

“There is momentum on the issue now and we have to act, these are not the first actions we are taking in Africa, there have been improvements already,” he said.

In Nigeria at least 12 airlines have been shut down because of their poor safety records, Matschnigg said, and this type of action was a credit to the political will that is being demonstrated to improve the image and the performance of the sector on the continent.

A new five part programme was adopted by delegates at an IATA-sponsored meeting in Jo-hannesburg in May, which was focused on improving the safety of the industry on the continent.
Next month this five step pro-gramme, which will be imple-mented between now and 2015, will be presented to the African heads of state and their minis-ters of transport for political support in Abuja.

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