The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said it would abide by the deadline given by African states that by December 31, 2017 all airlines in the region must have the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certification.
In 2012 Ministers of Transport in Africa met in Abuja and decided that to stem the frequency of air crashes in the region, airlines operating in the continent must have IOSA safety status, which is the benchmark for global safety management in airlines.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational Safety Audit is a high safety standard programme, which is an internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.
Records indicate that frequency of air crashes over the years is less among airlines with IOSA certification than airlines that do not have the safety status.
THISDAY investigations showed that some Nigerian airlines have completed and obtained IOSA certification, while others are still in the process. It is hoped that many of them would have obtained the certification before the deadline.
Spokesman of NCAA, Sam Adurogboye told THISDAY on Wednesday that IOSA compliance is a policy aimed at stimulating the safety and growth of African airlines.
“In a way it is mandatory/voluntary policy and there are so many to be done before that date, such as meetings, dialogue, stakeholders meetings to state the importance and the need for African airlines and ours, Nigerian airlines take the advantage of IOSA programme,” Adurogboye said.
THISDAY gathered that Nigerian airlines that obtained IOSA certification include Arik Air, First Nation Airways, Aero Contractors, Overland Airways and cargo airline, Allied Air. Others including Medview Airline, Air Peace, Dana Air are in the process of obtaining the certification.
IATA said the total accident rate for IOSA carriers between 2011 and 2015 was 3.3 times lower than the rate for non-IOSA operators. As such, IOSA has become a global standard, recognised well beyond IATA membership. As of March 2015, 145 (36 percent) of the 405 airlines on the IOSA registry were non-IATA.
In a recent IATA Day held in Abuja, the IATA Area Manager, South West Africa, Dr Samson Fatokun said IATA has been supporting Nigerian airlines to improve on safety in their operations.
“To break it down to the Nigerian scene, IATA has been supporting the strengthening of safety in Nigeria. We have taken some airlines, most of the domestic airlines through the IOSA preparatory programme, where each one of them had workshops, funded entirely by IATA and these include First Nation, Medview Airline, Allied Air and Air Peace presently. They have all gone through IOSA preparatory programme and this is a programme that was offered by IATA to help them and it goes straight into helping them to do well at IOSA audit and also improve their level of safety,” Fatokun said.
Fatokun remarked that IATA did not stop only on the operators, “five of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority safety inspectors went through series of training organised by IATA so that the regulator should be strengthened in terms of safety oversight. That is what IATA has done in the market; since the past two years we have been rolling that programme to improve safety in Nigeria.
In his major speech at the 2016 IATA Annual General Meeting and Exhibition held in Dublin, Ireland, the former Director-General and CEO of IATA, Tony Tyler said the IATA Operational Safety Audit used by over 400 airlines worldwide now include continuous compliance monitoring, adding that to maintain trust, the quality and integrity of IOSA’s audit standards and processes are constantly reviewed.
“IOSA proves that global standards can drive important safety improvements in Africa. The fatal accident rate for sub-Saharan carriers on the IOSA registry now aligns with the global average. The Abuja Declaration aims to achieve world-class safety in Africa. The continent’s governments must keep their commitments to make IOSA mandatory and implement fully the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards and recommended practices.”
THISDAY
