Durban — South Africa has received a special award from the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) for its exceptional preliminary International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audit results.
The special award was given at the conclusion of the organisation’s two-day Heads of Civil Aviation Authorities meeting in Dakar, Senegal.
Director of Civil Aviation at the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Poppy Khoza, accepted the honour on behalf of Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga.
The ICAO audited South Africa’s civil aviation safety infrastructure and oversight capabilities as part of their USOAP-CMA Programme.
The preliminary results of South Africa’s civil aviation safety system and supervision capabilities exceeded 90%, earning the country this distinction from AFCAC. Globally, the average rate of effective implementation is 67.50%.
AFCAC is the African Union agency charged with regulating civil aviation on the continent.
The minister tasked the SACAA, the nation’s aviation authority, with co-ordinating and leading the endeavour to ensure the state performs well in the audit.
“This special accolade gives me immense pleasure. It reaffirms our belief that the aviation authority does tremendous work in keeping our skies safe. This accolade goes to all who ensure safety is a priority in our aviation sector.
“It verified that the nation’s aviation safety standards are among the highest in the world and the highest on the continent. The final results of the ICAO are expected to be delivered in September 2023, following the conclusion of quality measures,” said Chikunga.
Prior to the 2017 USOAP-CMA audit, the State received a cumulative score of 87.39%.
“South Africa retained its Category 1 Status in 2022 following a safety audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US, which determined that South Africa complies with the applicable ICAO standards for civil aviation safety oversight, and received permanent recognition of our cargo aviation security system from the Transportation Security Administration of the US.
“Having undertaken several of these assessments with the European Union (EU) counterpart of the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), the EU has also recognised South Africa’s aviation cargo system, in terms of their ACC3 programme. As a consequence of this recognition, South African airlines transporting cargo to EU States will no longer be required to submit separate, costly applications to the EU,” the Transport Department said.
The final results of the ICAO are expected to be delivered in September 2023, following the conclusion of quality measures.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently launched the Collaborative Aviation Safety Improvement Program (CASIP) to reduce the accident and serious incident rate across Africa as part of the Focus Africa initiative.
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