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Johannesburg - South Africa’s results of an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have risen from 83.83% to 86.71%.
This is an increase of 3.43 in the level of effective implementation of ICAO’s critical elements with 86.71% significantly higher than the world average of 60%. This puts South Africa at position one in Africa and 33 globally. Before the audit, South Africa was at position 41 globally in relation to ICAO’s Effective Implementation and at position 2 in Africa.
Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi announced the ICAO 2017 prelimenary audit results at the OR Tambo International Airport on Monday.
ICAO is the United Nation’s specialised agency responsible for aviation. It was established in 1944 by to set standards to ensure a safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable, and environmentally responsible civil aviation sector. South Africa is one of the 191 ICAO Member States.
The global concern on the apparent inability of some of the member states to carry out their safety oversight functions led to ICAO introducing the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP).
"I must point out that completing an audit without a significant safety concern is extremely important. This means that based on a proclamation of a Significant Safety Concern against a particular state, other countries or regions may take a decision to ban airlines and other operators of the country which a Significant Safety Concern has been raised against from flying over and into their airspace," the minister explained.
"They may also prohibit their own operators from flying into the country with a Significant Safety Concern. In our case it could put at risk the jobs of the over 33 000 aviation personnel licence-holders, and approximately 227 000 other jobs occupied by South Africans employed in industry directly linked to air travel."
Contribution
An ICAO adverse finding could also clip the wings or simply ground the nearly 13 000 aircraft on the South African Aircraft Register and also erode the R50bn contribution that air transport contributes to the South African gross domestic product (GDP).
"The ICAO audit team did not raise any Significant Safety Concern against South Africa. On the contrary, the auditors were full of praises for South Africa’s handling of civil aviation matters," said Maswanganyi.
Initial results also shows that South Africa had 100% performance in two key audit areas of Legislation and Organisation as well 100% in the sub-field of aviation medicine.
The ICAO audit team pointed out several areas, such as the Airworthiness, Legislation, and Accident Investigations, as South Africa’s best practice and intend sharing these with the rest of the world.
"Upon receiving the final report – hopefully within the next 45 days, we will study it carefully and put emphasis on areas that may require improvement, and continue to excel in areas where we came out the best," said Maswanganyi.
"I wish to thank the Department of Transport together with the South African Civil Aviation Authority as well as the South African Audit Task Team that comprised of all relevant entities and agencies such as the South African Weather Services, the Air Traffic and Navigation Services, and the South Africa Search and Rescue for ensuring that South Africa passes the audit.
"The same gratitude goes to the entire aviation industry, particularly major license-holders such as SA Airlink, Solenta Aviation, Denel Aerostructures as well as the Air Traffic and Navigation Services which were audited and provided full cooperation. This is the type of collaboration that will see us growing abundantly."
