Ethiopia’s civil aviation authority to be
audited by UN’s International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO)
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is to audit working procedures of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) next year.
Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, ICAO is a UN body that monitors the global aviation industry. ICAO, among others, inspects and certifies countries civil aviation authorities. Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the ICAO established in 1944 under the Chicago Convention. Currently, ICAO is celebrating its 70th anniversary.
At a consultative stakeholders meeting held yesterday at the ECAA, Wossenyeleh Hunegnaw (Col.), director general of the authority, said that ICAO will audit the authority from April 20-29, 2015. ICAO will deploy a team of inspectors that audits the working procedures of ECAA. According to Wossenyeleh, ICAO’s audit comprises of eight critical elements. “From one to five inspections will be conducted on ECAA while the rest will concern operators,” Wossenyeleh said.
ECAA basically provides air navigation, inspection and certification of aircraft, airports, airlines and aviation professionals. The objective of the authority is to ensure safe and reliable air transport service in Ethiopia.
ICAO inspects the regulatory body of the aviation sector in countries. The airlines of those who do not qualify the audit cannot operate international flights. ICAO inspects the certification process and the air navigation service. The issuance of air operator’s certificate is among the long list of procedures that would be audited. ICAO’s team of experts will inspect how operators are certified.
“If we do not qualify, Ethiopian Airlines cannot fly anywhere. It affects the existence of the national flag carriers. Private operators, too, cannot fly to other countries,” Wossenyeleh said. “The audit is a very extensive one and we are being prepared for that.” He called up on operators to collaborate with the ECAA.
According to Wossenyeleh, since Ethiopian Airlines is growing fast and stretching its wings to every part of the world ICAO’s inspection will be “very stringent.” “The national carrier is now growing very strong. It has become the leading airline in Africa. It is now a global airline flying to five continents. So accordingly, ICAO’s audit will be a tough one. We have the information and we are preparing for that.”
Since ICAO has introduced new certification manuals ECAA will be forced to re-certify operators including Ethiopian Airlines as well as private operators.
ICAO audited ECAA in 2004 and it scored 67 percent, above world average which is 60. The authority has bought and installed modern flight instruments like radar and ADS-B at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport which reduces the time of landing or takeoff of an aircraft from seven to three minutes.
The authority allocated 102 million birr capital budget this year. According to Wosenyeleh, 30 million birr will be used to purchase multilateration radar system and 25 million birr for the purchase of voice communication system with console. Other communication equipment and spare parts will be purchased in the current budget year.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last year audited ECAA and granted it Category 1 status. ECAA first secured FAA’s approval in 1998 when Ethiopian Airlines commenced operation to the US. Carriers cannot fly to the US without the approval of FAA.
In a related news ECAA warned private operators that do not report to the authority. Endeshaw Yigezu, director, air transport and planning directorate, said that private operators who took investment license in 2013/14 are not reporting to the authority. “You are required to report to the authority every three months but you are not doing that. This might prompt the authority to revoke licenses,” Endeshaw said.
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