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African skies safer, despite Ethiopian crash
Ethiopian Airlines is the biggest airline in Africa
Africa’s civil aviation has witnessed considerable improvements in safety despite the recent horrible news about the crash of Ethiopia Airlines ET302 in which all 157 persons on board perished, revelations by industry watchers suggests.
According to a Ugandan online business portal www.256businessnews.com, which watches the aviation industry, African Jet aircraft losses fell from an average of 2.21 hull losses between 2012 and 2015, to zero in 2016.
“Until ET 302, the great leaps in African air safety was one of the best kept secrets from the world. For the past three consecutive years, Africa has not suffered a single fatal jet aircraft accident.
According to IATA safety figures, 523 people died in 11 fatal accidents involving mainline jet aircraft in the world. None of those accidents involved an African airline. The previous year, 2017 registered 19 fatalities in six accidents. Like 2016 before it, Africa emerged unscathed with zero fatalities.
www.256businessnews.com analysts argue that the growing safety trends in Africa’s aviation have arisen from the growing safety consciousness among African airlines coupled with emergence of newer fleets by the continent’s airliines.
“Regulators are also more empowered to make independent decisions while competition and the European Union’s decision to ban dangerous aircraft from its airspace have forced airlines to invest in new equipment.
Indeed, perhaps as indicative of a growing trend, Uganda’s Parliament last year passed an amendment to the Civil Aviation Authority which empowered the Ugandan aviation regulator to make spot checks on airlines, without prior notice.
“By 2018 some 37 African airlines has signed up to IOSA and increasingly, even non-IATA member airlines are signing up to the programme.
“According to IATA, in 2018, the all accident rate for airlines on the IOSA registry was more than two times lower than that of non-IOSA airlines (0.98 vs. 2.16) and it was more than two-and-a-half times better over the 2014-18 period.
All IATA (International Air Transport Association) member airlines are required to maintain their IOSA registration. There are currently 431 airlines on the IOSA Registry of which 131 are non-IATA Members.
The business site also observes that regulators are more empowered to make independent decisions while competition and the European Union’s decision to ban dangerous aircraft from its airspace have forced airlines to invest in new equipment.
The Secretary General of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Abdérahmane Berthé also notes that the continent’s aviation safety record has improved. Only two countries, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, are pulling the continent’s record down.
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