J Radebe: Aviation Safety and Security – Africa conference

19 July 2006

Master of Ceremonies, Mr Robert Jenny,
Distinguished speakers,
Members of the civil aviation industry,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me begin by thanking the organisers for changing the programme to allow
me to participate in this important conference. As a result, my input comes at
the end of your discussions, rather than at the beginning of the conference.
Unfortunately, the Department has not yet briefed me on yesterday's
proceedings, and I have not therefore been able to get a sense of the tone or
content of your engagements. But at least the subject matter of your
conference, focussing on developing suitable safety and security oversight
capacity in the African aviation sector, has been a keen priority of
governments across the continent for some time.

Another result of my speaking at the end of your conference is the need to
change the format of what I was going to say originally. Rather than provide
you with a keynote address I have elected to home in on a number of precise
points in a way that hopefully summarises but also looks forward to further
discussions between role-players and stakeholders alike.

The first thing to note is that as safety and security in aviation has risen
dramatically in public prominence since 9-11 2001, so have the number of
workshops, seminars and conferences on the topic. This Conference, for example,
follows the Aviation Safety Seminar held in February this year, as well as
important African Union (AU)-led Ministerial conferences on the same topic, and
airlines' associations' gatherings dealing with the same topic. Across the
continent, conferences of this nature are occurring regularly. Similarly, the
Directors-General of Civil Aviation Conference on a Global Strategy for
Aviation Safety held in Montreal, 20 to 22 March 2006, made a number of
conclusions and recommendations that have to be implemented to enhance aviation
safety. The conference agreed on a need to achieve a further reduction in the
number of accidents and especially fatal accidents to maintain the public
confidence in the safety of the global air transport system. These
recommendations and others will filter into the country safety regimes in due
course.

As a means to keep the issue at the top of the agenda this is a good thing,
especially for specialists to keep up to date with modern trends and new
technologies or training requirements arising from the implementation of new
security and safety standards in the industry. But I must warn that we run the
risk of conference and seminar overload as a result. If I, for example, were to
accept invitations to attend all the conferences that deal with issues within
my transport portfolio, I would not have time for any other engagements at all!
Concerns have also been raised about the manner in which commercial marketing
initiatives sometimes seem to be the major reason for gatherings rather than
policy development, assessment or practical critique of systems as they
develop. It is not always possible or indeed necessary to separate these
completely, but I would really urge more careful thought of the rationale for
conferences in the first instance.

In February this year I dealt in depth with the economic impact of aviation
in Africa, particularly in terms of its economic development, but I am not
going to repeat what I said then. Basically, air transport contributes about
2.4% of global GDP, and has become the primary means of moving people and
high-value freight around the globe. Air transport and its related services and
industry back-up employ about 29 million around the world as well. Some 40% of
international tourists travel by air.

Air transport has a growing impact on Africa's economies as well, generating
about 470 000 direct and indirect jobs across the continent, and contributing
over US$11.3 billion to African GDP. If we add air transport-dependent tourism
activities, then the number of jobs increases to over 3 million and the
contribution to African GDP reaches some US$55.5 billion! As we all know,
tourism is a driving force in a number of African countries, including Kenya,
Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania and is assuming an
ever-increasing importance in South Africa and Namibia as well. An amazing 20%
of all tourism jobs in Africa are directly related to air-borne tourists.
Comparatively, tourism-related employment supported by air is higher in Africa
than Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and the Middle East. Only
300 000 people in the United States of America (USA), or 4% of direct
employment, for example, in tourism depend on arriving visitors from
overseas.

In Africa, air transport continues to be a primary means of communicating
with remote areas, providing relief from natural disasters, transporting
humanitarian aid, assisting and supporting peacekeeping efforts and, at the
other end of the scale, bringing Africans closer together and improving
consumer welfare. Increasing numbers of airlines, including low-cost airlines,
are popping up all the time. Whilst questions remain about the sustainability
of many of these smaller airlines, the fact remains that aviation is becoming
more and more accessible to ordinary people, and we can rest assured that
passenger numbers will continue to grow significantly in the near future.

By the way, an Airlift Strategy for South Africa is before Cabinet at the
moment. This strategy arises from an examination of the aviation constraints
that Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) has
identified, and aims to improve South African airlines' international
competitiveness, thereby growing South Africa's share of the international
transport market and meeting the tourism and trade sectors' requirements for
cost-effective and efficient air services. The Strategy represents a specific
intervention within an overall approach to the development of the aviation
sector, and I look forward to intense engagement with the document once it is
published for public comment in the near future. So, watch this space!

An emphasis on the economic impact of the aviation sector, particularly
where we are attempting to increase the contribution that aviation makes both
in its own specific terms and in the broader development of the aeronautics
industry generally in Africa, must raise the question whether our regulatory,
safety and security regimes are mature enough to cope, flexible enough to
adapt, and technologically efficient enough to sustain and retain competitive
advantage. I am pleased, looking at your conference programme, that you have
successfully mixed these elements together, highlighting airspace management
questions, to the employment of the most recent technologies to assist in such
critical areas as weather prediction, and to assess emergency and disaster
management systems, to oversight mechanisms of safety plans, and so on. One
task now will be to integrate the knowledge gained and shared experiences into
effective operations and oversight by all concerned, including governments.

All of us work within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)
framework, taking their requirements as minimum steps to the achievement of
greater goals. The dynamism of the aviation sector requires a continuous
process of developing and promoting new or amended measures to improve security
for air travellers worldwide, whilst promoting other practical measures, such
as efficient border crossing procedures. These topics have been a hallmark of
aviation since the first-ever international convention on air navigation met in
Paris in 1910. That first conference also agreed to disagree over another
fundamental issue that of the sovereignty of nations and the right to control a
nation's airspace, contrasted to the obvious economic and social benefits of
having limitless and unrestricted access to the air.

As acts of unlawful interference continue to pose a serious threat to the
safety and security of international civil aviation, the ICAO continues to
pursue policies and programs designed to prevent such acts. We are in total
support of ICAO's Aviation Security (AVSEC) Mechanism, the series of Aviation
Security Training Packages (ASTPs) and the Regional AVSEC courses it runs. We
also support the ICAO Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP).

Aviation security is an immediate concern, not only to the civil aviation
community, but also to the public. We must remind ourselves that aviation
security is a collective responsibility, involving various state agencies,
airport authorities and airline operators. This also highlights the need to
ensure the maximum level of cooperation between, and integrity of all role
players in the aviation security chain.

Quite often we tend to forget that aviation safety has as much to do with
safety in the air as it does on the ground. After all, what goes up must come
down! We must bear in mind that many airports in Africa are surrounded by
large, frequently informal settlements, where the majority of people are poor.
The flight paths of aircraft in the environs of airports, the areas where most
safety related incidents take place, including crashes on take off or landing,
also track across largely poor but densely populated areas. Too often, air
accidents involve casualties and destruction on the ground too, and so air
safety is also actually a concern for communities on the ground. This is
important to remember in a context where too often, expenditure on what appears
to be remote but expensive infrastructure and technology is sometimes seen as
taking bread from the mouths of the poor.

A few weeks ago, I addressed the Board of the Airlines Association of
Southern Africa in some detail on the initiatives and steps we have taken to
deal with air and airport safety and security. I would merely refer those who
are interested, to the department's website to access that document if you
don't know it. I must stress that it is not helpful at all to jump to
conclusions about the nature of our aviation safety regime, and who is
responsible for problems, on the basis of isolated incidents or without getting
the full details first. The recent unfortunate cash heist at the general
aviation area adjacent to the Bloemfontein Airport is a case in point. Almost
immediately some media and political parties jumped to the conclusion that
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) was somehow responsible because the
incident occurred at an airport; and that following so soon on the heels of the
Johannesburg International Airport cash heist, it was further evidence of a
complete collapse in airport security. When it emerged that in fact the
incident occurred in an area totally separate from the ACSA-controlled airport,
and that security lapses by the private contractor concerned probably played a
large part in the success of the heist, silence reigned and no apologies were
made to ACSA or anyone else who were initially and incorrectly assumed to be at
fault. It seems a peculiarly South African habit of the moment to leap to
conclusions about serious matters without waiting to check anything, and then
marching of to the next "crisis-in-waiting" in order to be in the front of the
queue to make sensational statements. We should not be blinded by the glare of
the instant comment in an age of instant communication when in fact we are
dealing with a complex and dynamic environment that requires time, training,
investment and detailed operation to function properly.

The absence of effective, autonomous civil aviation authorities continues to
be a serious obstacle to implementing safety oversight in certain states.
Africa should strengthen regional safety oversight organisations or initiatives
that represent good vehicles for enabling states to fulfil their safety
oversight obligations and achieve long-term sustainable results. Each state has
a responsibility to ensure safety in the airspace within its territory,
including the operation of aircraft of foreign operators. It is therefore
desirable that processes for the recognition of certificates and licences are
valid, as well as ensuring a uniform approach to the surveillance of foreign
aircraft operations. Flags of convenience - also referred to as "paper
airlines", illegal operations and criminal activities endanger the safety of
our skies.

South Africa, like the rest of the African continent, is concerned by the
lack of transparency in the listing of airlines by the European Union (EU) and
also on the negative impact of the ban on other African airlines not on the
list. South Africa is joining the African states in calling on the ICAO to
develop a code of conduct regarding the technical banning of aircraft
operations of third countries. The banning should be based on well-defined
criteria and methodology. I would suggest also that as much as commentators
focused their attention on the number of airlines that were recently prohibited
from European Union airspace, apparently for reasons of safety, very few
noticed that the listed airlines were deemed unairworthy despite being
registered by particular Civil Aviation Authorities in their respective
countries. The bannings then, were as much a reflection on the airlines
concerned as they were on the competence or otherwise of state regulatory
authorities and systems. Obviously this is a matter of deep concern.

As economic liberalisation has become one of the defining features of
modern-day aviation, there is a need to ensure that the safety framework
continues to meet the requirement for the safe and orderly development of
international civil aviation. There is a need to clarify the concept of the
operator and the relationship with the state responsible for its safety
oversight.

There is no better time for Africa to reduce and ultimately eliminate
duplication of efforts in respect of technical cooperation on aviation safety
and security. Africa must mobilise its scarce resources with a clear focus on
improving civil aviation safety and security.

In conclusion, I would like to call on you to form a very strong partnership
to deal with aviation safety and security challenges in Africa. We must move
away from reliance based solely on outside help as it is us who should rise to
the challenge of making African skies safer and secure.

Thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Transport
19 July 2006