Measures to improve airport, air-traffic-control (ATC) and communications infrastructures in Africa have been agreed at an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) meeting in Abija, Nigeria.
ATC safety standards in Africa were recently condemned by organisations such as the International Federation of Air Line Pilots and the International Air Transport Association (Flight International, 27 November-3 December, 1996).
The ICAO Africa-Indian Ocean Region air-navigation meeting agreed several recommendations, including:
- establishment of financially independent, autonomous airport authorities;
- extension of ICAO's Safety Oversight Programme to airports;
- increased co-operation in airspace management for greater ATC efficiency;
- establishment of procedures for reporting and analysing air-traffic- services (ATS) incidents;
- a quality-assurance programme for ATS units;
- carriage of secondary-surveillance-radar transponders and airborne collision-avoidance systems on aircraft;
- early introduction of global- navigation satellite systems, and provision of necessary training.
Source: Flight International
