Local airline praised for high quality of safety |21 February 2007
“Air Seychelles has a very high quality of safety, and all passengers whom we’ve met who have travelled on Air Seychelles are full of faith in the airline.
“So it is one of the airlines which we use as an example. It is a relatively small airline but its quality of safety is world class, so we are telling other airlines that even if their carriers are small, they can still be profitable, run professionally and also be safe like Air Seychelles,” he said.
Talking more on Africa’s generally tainted aviation safety record, Mr Chingosho said that Afraa is calling on airlines to avoid ageing aircraft which are prone to accidents.
He said it is mainly small operators whose aircraft are normally involved in crashes, but when accidents involving a number of national airlines were cited, he said that among large carriers, only those from four countries which he did not name are contributing to Africa’s high accident rates.
“We have witnessed high aviation accident rates in some countries of Africa and we, along with other stakeholders, are trying to focus on those countries,” he said.
When asked about the specific case of one western African country, Mr Chingosho said that the nation’s government is addressing the problem.
Among the recent crashes in Africa are those that have taken place in Nigeria and include one in October 2005, in which a Boeing 737 aircraft with 117 people on board crashed shortly after taking off from Lagos en route to Abuja.
The following month, another airline owned by the same Nigerian company made an emergency landing at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana.
In the same country towards the end of last year, another plane crashed, killing 100 amid reports that the captain of the Boeing 737 which was built in 1983 seemingly ignored warnings from air traffic controllers and took off in a thunderstorm. The plane crashed shortly after take-off.
“Some of the accidents may not necessarily be avoidable, and are of the likes that affect even well-reputed airlines, even those from Europe,” he said.
“But most of the accidents seen in Africa are due to the operators running some very old aircraft.
“So we are urging them to stop importing some of the aircraft from countries that may not even have the aircraft’s maintenance records.
“We are also asking the African states to publicise the accidents after they occur so that we can learn from the accidents,” he said.
When launching the meeting, the chairman and chief executive officer of Air Seychelles, Captain David Savy whose airline is this year hosting the Afraa gathering, said it is an honour to host the 11 delegates.
“It is an honour for Air Seychelles to be able to host such an important event. ‘To serve African airlines and to promote their common interests’ is one of Afraa’s missions,” Captain Savy said.
“We, as members of Afraa, have to be motivated by the desire to establish harmonious and effective cooperation between African airlines.
“This meeting will better help member airlines to further develop and consolidate a common approach to key issues in the aviation industry and to learn from one another’s achievements and experiences,” Captain Savy said.
He urged African airlines to invest in training, adding that developing human resources may cost money, but in the long run, it helps organizations to save through efficiency.
He said that while wealthier airlines have the power to poach trained staff because they can pay more, they do not necessarily invest as much in training.
“So we keep on training and they keep on poaching. It is like a person planting a mango tree and when it yields, somebody else comes and picks the mangoes. But rather than be discouraged, instead of planting one, we should plant two or three trees,” he said.
Afraa was established in April, 1968 in Accra, Ghana as a Trade Organisation open to membership of airlines of African states. There are currently 41 members from African Union member states. These are:
ADC Airlines, Aero Zambia, Afriqiyah Airways, Air Algérie, Air Botswana, Air Burkina, Air Burundi, Air Gabon, Air Ivoire, Air Madagascar, Air Malawi, Air Mauritanie, Air Mauritius, Air Namibia, Air Senegal International, Air Seychelles, Air Tanzania, Air Zimbabwe, Antrak Air Ghana, Azza Transport Company, Bellview Airlines Limited, Cameroon Airlines, East African Airlines, Eritrean Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, Executive Airlines Services Ltd, Ghana International Airlines, Interair S.A., Kenya Airways, LAM-Mozambique, Libyan Arab Airlines, Lignes Aériennes Congolaises, Precision Airlines Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways, South African Express, Sudan Airways, TAAG Angola Airlines, Trans Arabian Transport and Tunis Air.