Safety in Africa

It should be as safe to travel by air in Africa as it is in any other part of the world*

Aviation supports nearly 7 million jobs in Africa. The continent's governments have much to gain from pursuing air transport growth and connectivity. But for a region with the world's worst safety rate, improved safety is central to that goal.

In May 2012, IATA, in collaboration with ICAO and a host of other organizations, committed to an Africa Strategic Safety Improvement Action Plan aimed at addressing safety deficiencies and strengthening regulatory oversight in the region by 2015. See News Brief - Improving Safety in Africa.

African consensus on extensive safety plan

The safety plan was further enhanced by the commitment of Africas's Directors General of Civil Aviation and by the Extraordinary Session of the Conference of Ministers of Transport held in Abuja, Nigeria, July 2012. This commitment, has been formalized in a document referred to as the ‘Abuja Declaration’.

The plan is based on the following key priorities:

Implementation of an effective and transparent regulatory oversight system. All African operators to implement the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA)  Implementation of runway safety measures Training on preventing loss of control Implementation of flight data analysis (FDA) Implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS)

IOSA

Africa is a continent divided on performance. Evidence shows that global standards can make a difference in aviation. The safety performance of airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry at the end of 2012 was 4.3 times better than carriers that didn't undergo the audit. And the safety performance of the African carriers was in line with the global IOSA average. This is why wider adoption of IOSA across Africa was a key part of the discussions in Abuja. See the  Current IOSA-registered airlines. 

Custom guidance and training

IATA intends to bring 10 additional African-based airlines to IOSA registry status by 2015. To support this goal, regional awareness raising workshops on IOSA are being organized in cooperation with ICAO and the African Airlines Association (AFRAA). 

In order to accompany airlines in their safety programs, in-house training and gap analysis will be also provided by IATA to select operators during 2013.

For more information on safety in Africa, please contact us.

 

*It should be as safe to travel by air in Africa as it is in any other part of the world" is a quote form Tony Tyler in the press release "2012 Best in History of Continuous Safety Improvements" (February 2013)