What Tanzania is doing to make air transport safer
Dar es Salaam. There about 100,000 flights globally every day, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
Aircraft take to the skies and land safely, thanks to stakeholders’ push in improving aviation safety.
Swissport Tanzania saw fatalities, permanent disability or time lost from work falling to eight last year compared to 13 a year before, according to quality and compliance manager Daniel Simkanga.
The company handled 14,792 aircraft last year. It also saw a significant decrease in the number of aircraft damage.
Since January, no aircraft was damaged, said the company’s chief executive officer, Mr Mrisho Yassin.
According to a recent Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) report, the number of air traffic grew by 2.1 per cent to 4.95 million in 2016 compared with the previous year.
Cargo volume dropped by 20 per cent, to 24,030 tonnes between 2015 and 2016.
The construction of the Sh560 billion terminal three at Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) is at final stages and the passenger capacity will rise by more than twofold to nine million. The airport will eventually be decongested.
Upon its completion, terminal three alone, will 6.5 million passengers annually, more than twice the capacity of terminal two’s 2.5 million passengers. However, challenges facing the air transport are not about congestion and service quality.
This has placed pressure on both local and international stakeholders to put in place a number of safety efficiency initiatives.
Safely handling for aircraft continues to be Swissport Tanzania’s top priority, with the company used Sh58.5 million for safety-related programmes last year, according to Mr Yassin.
To ensure safety is enhanced, campaigns have been carried out.
Safety alerts and posters are issued to sensitise staff.
Also, safety inspections and audits are done and incidents are collected and analysed to assess the effectiveness.
Other initiatives are near-miss reporting and safety, health improvement programme (Ship) and safety campaign.
Near-miss reporting is an unplanned event that has the potential to cause, but does not actually result in human injury, environmental or equipment damage or an interruption to normal operation but has to be reported to prevent future incidents. Ship is run in a form of workshops and is geared towards training employees about safety issues.
“We continue taking steps in raising standards and implementing best practices,” noted Mr Yassin.
The safety officers deployed recently have proved to be efficient function as they keep monitoring safety and security aspects in all areas of the company’s operations.
Swissport was audited by Iata whose mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry, and subsequently was approved as Iata Safety Audit for Ground Operations compliant and received accredited certificates for JNIA and Kilimanjaro International Airport (Kia) to June 17, 2017.
Reports from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) indicate that the average worldwide level of implementation of international safety standards in civil aviation in 2016 were estimated at only 63 per cent.
To improve safety of Tanzania’s airspace, the regulator last year signed an agreement with the France-based Company Thales Air System to install four radars in four airports in 18 months.
With the acquisition of the state-of-the-art surveillance radars worth $28 million (about Sh63 billion at the prevailing exchange rate), now the country will be able to monitor its entire aviation airspace.
Tanzania uses aviation radar installed at the JNIA in 2002, monitoring only 25 per cent of its aviation airspace. TCAA director general Hamza Johari said: “Safety of our skies is of paramount importance. With the four radars we will be able to monitor our entire airspace and beyond.”
Early this year, TCAA installed a high frequency radio station in Tanga to oversee the airspace for the safety to airline operators.
The Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) ensures passenger screening is done for travellers for safety and security as they leave the airport.
It is conducted at different points starting with the entrance area into the departure terminal and ending with one last screening point before passengers go through the boarding gates. Safety data management and analyses are a part of Iata’s safety strategy and are available via the Global Aviation Data Management programme.
The programme provides Iata members and other eligible industry members with a wealth of information and acts as a gateway to the multiple sources and areas of aircraft operations.
The programme has information from over 470 organisations.
Over 90 per cent of Iata members are contributing to at least one of its databases.
The EU considers safety to be the joint responsibility of the global aviation community to support states that have difficulties or are unable to establish sustainable safety oversight systems in compliance with international standards.
The EU is actively engaged in a number of technical assistance and cooperation initiatives aimed at promoting aviation safety globally and regionally, particularly in areas with high accident rates.
To meet these challenges, government agencies and industry will have to invest in new and upgraded infrastructure and equipment.
Another cornerstone of the approach to enhancing aviation safety is the Iata Operational Safety Audit, an internationally recognised programme that is implemented consistently throughout the industry.
On top of that is Integrated Management Solutions - a tool that provides an efficient and cost-effective solution to manage the collection and processing of your quality and safety data and information as part of your safety data collection and processing system.
Furthermore is supporting consistent implementation of the Safety Management System in ensuring safety performance monitoring, analysis and dissemination of information safety promotion and facilitation.
