FlightCom – July 2019

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Postal Address

E d' s n o t e ...

A

little more than a year ago I sat

with IATA CEO Alexandre de

Juniac in his office overlooking

Geneva Airport and challenged

him as to what he was doing about the poor

quality of the regulation of the aviation

industry in Africa. He seemed surprised

by the question, as up until then, industry

regulation had not been a key issue for

IATA.

I am pleased to see that this acceptance

of the regulation standards in Africa by

IATA is now changing. Addressing the

annual African Airlines Convention in

Mauritius, IATA’s Raphael Kuuchi called

for greater cooperation between regulators

and the African airline industry. There are

increasing signs that the cacophony of

complaints from the airlines and general

aviation about the destructive consequences

of poor regulation are increasingly coming

to the fore of IATA’s engagement with

African aviation.

As the representative of almost all the

world’s airlines, IATA represents a huge and

important constituency. Kuuchi reports that

aviation supports $55.8 billion of economic

activity and 6.2 million jobs in Africa.

Without airline service a country’s economy

will simply wither and collapse.

Yet aviation in Africa is being strangled

by poor regulatory oversight. In South

Africa we watch with horror the grotesque

cost in jobs and air connectivity of the battle

between the SACAA and regional airline

CemAir. It is significant that both IATA’s

and the United Nations’ safety standards

were being met by the CemAir, yet it

was unable to satisfy the demands of the

SACAA.

It is therefore not surprising that relations

between the SACAA and the aviation

industry are at their worst ever. It has

become so bad that the industry is resorting

to suing the CAA’s inspectors and managers

in their personal capacities. This is virtually

unprecedented for a normally functioning

industry. Valuable companies are choosing

to operate under other countries’ AOCs.

Many others just give up and quietly go into

other more amenable industries – with less

obstructive bureaucracy.

Another example of how the SACAA is

destroying its industry is that of professional

drone operators. Over a year ago I found

that it was taking 18 months or longer to

get a remote operators’ certificate (ROC).

Despite promises from the SACAA, this

situation has not improved. A drone operator

pioneering their use for specialist crop

spraying had to wait almost two years to

get a ROC. The consequence is that almost

all drone operators in South Africa are

operating illegally. Yet Rwanda manages to

constructively engage with drone operators

• and has in consequence been the fertile
  ground for world leading innovations such
  as Zipline’s drone-based medicine delivery
  service.
  It is time for a radical overhaul at the
  SACAA. The rot starts from the top. In her
  failure to engender a culture of constructive
  engagement with the aviation industry Ms
  Poppy Khoza has overstayed her tenure and
  fails to justify her large salary and bonuses.
  She should be quietly ‘promoted’ to some
  position at ICAO. And, in keeping with the
  new South African ethos, incompetent or
  corrupt officials should be fired and left to
  face personal damages claims.

JUNE 2019

Edition 128

Editor

Guy Leitch

Airline Ops - Mike Gough 5

Companies - Ascend Aviation 9

Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor 11

25 Questions for Dr Adriana Marais 15

Companies - SkySource 19

Defence - Food Security 21

Airline Industry 27

Aviation & Tourism Development 29

GIB Events Calender 32

News: ACJ319neo 33

Federal Airlines Charter Directory 34

AEP AMO Listing 35

Aviation NAMPO Style 37

Gryphon Flight School Listing 39

AME Doctors Listing 40

Back Pages 43

Subscriptions 45