Publications
Partners
Speaking at the opening of the session, he said the challenges facing civil aviation arose in four main areas.
"The first set of challenges arises from the present conditions of civil aviation in Africa itself," he said.
"The second set relates to our response as signatories to a host of international conventions that are exercised through membership of associations and as individual countries."
Radebe said the third set of challenges was what was needed to be done to establish and operate sustainable institutions and administer the structures relating to civil aviation.
The global environment of insecurity and of economic uncertainty also had an impact on civil aviation in Africa.
Many civil airlines in Africa suffered from a lack of financial performance which could be attributed to among other things low traffic volumes on intra-African routes and high insurance costs.
"At the moment it is a sad fact that very often the best route from point A to point B in Africa is via Europe.
It is probably as a result of these problems that African travellers are faced with enormous costs to fly within Africa, costs that far too often are much higher than the cost of intercontinental flights."
Air traffic control
Radebe said there were also serious deficiencies in Air Traffic Control over much of Africa's air space.
"Africa cannot be satisfied with the safety record as it stands at the moment."
He said the problems were due to navigation and management, as well as ageing or near obsolete equipment on the ground and in the air, poor maintenance and an inability to ensure uniformity in the application of desired safety equipment.
Radebe said despite all these problems, and the fact that the global civil aviation industry was only now recovering from the September 11 2001 attacks in the US, African aviation was set to grow.
"Africa is a continent of diverse experiences and uneven development. The challenges are huge. The commitment to resolve them, however, I believe is there... your deliberations during this plenary session come at a critical time as the African Civil Aviation Commission faces some of its most demanding challenges."
The commission is a member of the International Civil Aviation Commission which is based in Canada.
