Kufuor calls for strict enforcement of aviation regulations

Accra, Aug. 28, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor, on Tuesday said the recent spate of aviation related accidents, especially in Africa was unacceptable and called on stakeholders to strictly enforce regulations to forestall any further accidents.

"I must say that the situation is not acceptable and I therefore implore all of you to do all in your power to strictly enforce regulations, adhere to maintenance schedules to ensure that these accidents become a thing of the past and air travel on our continent will become one of the safest," he said.

President Kufuor made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the 13th Aviation and Allied Business Leadership Conference in Accra.

The conference was organised by Landover Company Limited, Publishers of the Aviation and Allied Business Journal and other collaborators across the continent. The theme was "Air Transport in Africa: The Future in your hands".

The three-day conference, being attended by experts, airline operators, investors, policymakers and operators of allied businesses in the aviation industry will, among others things, deliberate on the six main areas of finance, safety and security, policy and regulations, airport infrastructure, the environment and airlines. President Kufuor noted that due to the several challenges facing the aviation industry in Africa, African airlines carried just 30 per cent of international traffic to and from the continent, leaving the rest to the Western giants.

These, he said included financial and human resource constraints, managerial and institutional problems and lack of proper safety measures.

"This situation must be reversed if we are determined to ensure economic development through air transport and tourism development on the continent," he said.

President Kufuor said another situation equally unacceptable was that air travel within the continent was one of the most difficult to the extent that sometimes one would have to travel through Europe to connect to a sister African country or spend three days undertaking a trip, which would hitherto had taken just five or six hours.

"I believe this is an opportune time for us to take up the challenge of making air travel within the continent an enjoyable experience which people will always wish to repeat," he said. He recalled the Yamoussoukro Decision by African Heads of States, which was intended to free African airlines to operate on any intra-continental routes of their choice without any restriction, and asked that steps should be taken to implement that decision fully. Mr. Christian Folly-Kossi, Secretary-General of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), noted that part of the problem for the low presence of African carriers in the aviation industry was that out of 1,436 airlines registered and licensed by the various African Civil Aviation Authorities, only six per cent were in active operation. "We recommend that the Civil Aviation Authorities on the continent on should make sure they clear from their register all dead and/or paper airlines," he said.

He noted that the high state tax pressure on air travellers was getting out of proportion, saying that in most African countries, state taxes on passengers alone were 40 to 100 per cent of the actual airline tariff and in some cases it exceeded road fare to destinations. "This immensely contributes to making ticket fares ridiculously high on intra-African routes and constitutes a major hindrance to business and trade development between African countries.

Mr. Folly-Kosi called on the African Union to urgently address the situation with appropriate recommendations.

He also called for diplomatic intervention in what he called "the unscrupulous poaching" of pilots and other professional staff working for African airlines by the Western airlines. Ms. Gloria Akuffo, Minister of Aviation said the way forward for the aviation industry in Africa was greater cooperation and integration of policy frameworks and regulations.

"Unless we are prepared to sacrifice some of our individual state interests, we shall continue to render ourselves incapable of holding our own against other interests outside the continent," she said. She kicked against the refusal of some AU member states to allow integrated regulation to be binding on individual states, saying that the reasons they cited were untenable and that having regulations, which were not binding, was the same as having no regulation at all. 27 Aug. 07