Minutes of the Joint ICAO – World Bank – ATAG

Working Group Meeting of 19. October 2005

The ICAO-World Bank-ATAG Working Group was established during the first joint Workshop in Montreal in June 2005. The objective is to establish a small team of representatives of international organizations, donor countries, civil aviation authorities, and development partners to identify and discuss developmental priorities of the sector. The prime aim is to coordinate and streamline all developmental efforts to help developing countries to reach international standards in aviation safety and security as quickly as possible.

Below is a summary of the first working group meeting after its establishment, held at the World Bank on 19. October 2005. Seven interrelated themes emerged clearly from the meeting:

  1. Difficulties in oversight of virtual airlines
  2. The supply and ability to retain trained oversight personnel
  3. Oversight funding, including the use of regional organizations
  4. The sharing of audit and other data between the institutions
  5. The financial support of the private sector (IATA and airlines) if priorities and coordination are agreed upon
  6. The overall role of air transport in development, including rural air transport
  7. The status, both financially and politically, of CAAs within their own country’s governments
  8. The World Bank development of a database listing vital air transport data on safety, security, infrastructure, and traffic.

The meeting began with Mr. William R. Voss, Director, Air Navigation Bureau, ICAO, discussing the accident rate in Africa, and in particular issues on corruption. Besides emphasizing the fact that internal mental blacklisting occurs in most if not all CAAs, Mr. Voss highlighted the importance of sharing data. The term “virtual airline” was introduced, describing airlines that wet-lease aircraft and exercise no control over outsourced maintenance or the actual operation of the flights. He emphasized that there are people intentionally breaking rules on safe operation, usually escaping oversight by having aircraft registered in different countries than where they are operated in. The sharing of registry data, for example, would be vital in controlling these practices.

Another issue addressed was the capacity of oversight agencies – with the current and anticipated growth in air travel, oversight staffing (inspectors and so on) could not be recruited and trained at a pace keeping up with the number of additional aircraft and operations. The solution, Mr. Voss emphasized, is having airlines create their own safety oversight systems, which would be inspected by the regulators.

The discussion turned to the importance of regional oversight organizations as a better way to pool resources and share expertise. Recent COSCAPS in Africa we mentioned as good examples.

Mr. Charles E. Schlumberger, Principal Air Transport Specialist for the World Bank, mentioned that there currently is no mechanism for sharing ICAO safety audit results. Mr. Voss agreed on the lack of transparency and suggested that there are countries with problems that would be willing to share their audit results, and that those which were not willing to share would probably not be good air transport development lending targets.

Mr. Philippe Rochat of ATAG highlighted the importance of defining solutions that are cost effective. He furthermore pointed out the economic importance of air transport by announcing the publication of ATAG’s “The economic & social benefit of air transport”, with research performed by Oxford Economic Forecasting.

Mr. Günther Matschnigg of IATA mentioned the creation of one global safety database, shared with ICAO, where IATA focuses on airlines, and ICAO focuses on countries. Mr. Matschnigg stated that IATA was willing to share its list of airlines with the Bank. Furthermore he mentioned the importance of sharing infrastructure priorities with industry in a common infrastructure plan – US$ 45 billion are going into infrastructure development, and airlines are paying for it. A coordinated effort would be optimal, with IATA willing to share information on infrastructure needs as based on reports by the association’s clients.

Mr. Charles E. Schlumberger described the Bank’s recent mission to Tanzania, where a transportation infrastructure loan will have a US$ 20 – 30 million air transport component. Mr. Schlumberger pointed out the importance of GNSS, and opportunities presented by the latest ADS-B technology, with direct applicability to Tanzania.

Mr. Pierre A. Pozzo di Borgo, Senior Transport Specialist for the Africa region in the World Bank, mentioned the importance of measurable results, and the need to be careful about making sure what is financed is truly effective in creating the desired result. He further mentioned that when exploring capacity building in regulatory authorities, the adequacy of the number of staff available may be as important if not more important than simply the structure of the organization. In addition, the financing of regulatory agencies was addressed – it is important that revenues collected through security taxes, fees, etc. all truly go to the agencies and are appropriately allocated. Finally, Mr. di Borgo highlighted the importance of remembering that transportation should not be developed for transportation’s sake, but for the benefit of overall economic development.

Mrs. Maimuna Taal-N’dure, Director General, The Gambia CAA, emphasized the benefits of sharing resources through regional organizations.

Mr. Christopher Kuto, Director General of the Kenya CAA, emphasized the importance of regional oversight in the East African Community, of which Kenya is a member. Mr. Kuto described the history of the EAC, which has collapsed before in 1978, and the importance of synergy in East Africa in creating political and economic stability.

The conversation shifted to the vulnerability of regional systems if either one of its members did not follow the commonly decided rules, or if the oversight organization itself is not well managed. Mr. Voss pointed out that states need to be aware that safety oversight is not a revenue generator for the governments overall, but if properly run a money loser. Ms. Connie Hunter of the U.S. DOT’s Safe Skies for Africa Program mentioned this as a liability when talking to other government ministers, stating that status improvement of CAA’s among ministries within the same government is directly linked to the ability of bringing in revenues. The bottom line for regulatory oversight is to convince governments to pass the necessary laws.

Mr. Robert Nelson of ADS-B Technologies mentioned that related to the importance of safety oversight is the rural nature of most operations in many developing countries. He emphasized that the biggest exposure to risk were those operations that involved lighter commercial or general aviation aircraft flying in remote rural fields with no support in navigation, traffic collision, and weather.

Ms. Taal-N’dure gave an example of how in her country in West Africa, The Gambia, her CAA finally gained clout. Aircraft from her country where banned from flying into the U.K., and in 1996 the CAA had a 70% deficit. From 1999 new regulatory laws were sitting in parliament with no action. In 2003-2004, after a dramatic aircraft accident, the U.K published a blacklist of banned airlines on television, containing amongst others The Gambia. This public blacklisting motivated The Gambia’s government to rearrange its priorities, and now the CAA is operation at only a 10% deficit, and aircraft are allowed to fly into the U.K.Ms. Taal-N’dure insisted that DGs of other CAAs must be willing to leave their jobs in the better interest of safety if a point is to be made about the importance of regulations and their enforcement.

Mr. Mike Daniel of the FAA also emphasized the need to raise air transport development issues to the ministerial level in governments.

Mr. di Borgo summarized the following points:

  1. Key indicators in safety and security are neededin order to be aware of what to look out and watch for,
  2. IATA would share data to see what is needed to be done, and also to evaluate improvements as they develop, and
  3. IATA would help create a baseline from which to compare the progress in creating a safer and more secure air transport environment.

Mr. Jorge Vargas of COCESNA gave a presentation on the regional priorities in Latin America as seen from the experience of A.C.S.A./COCESNA. This led to a discussion of talent retention and funding. Mr. Michel Iches of the Civil Aviation France pointed out that a central African delegation was impressed after visiting A.C.S.A./COCESNA. Two sources for funding for regional oversight organizations would be en-route air navigation charges and safety and security charges levied on each ticket sale.

Dr. Sergio Parisof the Columbian CAA made three primary points about the ICAO safety audit process, namely

  1. in order to create a culture of safety, one must also create a culture and society that values life,
  2. the credibility in ICAO audits, if they were made to be public, would depend on the surrounding explanation of the audits, so people actually understand what the audit results really mean, and
  3. the importance, mentioned earlier by Mr. Voss, of introducing safety management systems to airlines.

Furthermore, Dr. Paris explained that an indicator of the level, quality, and quantity of safety needs to be developed and applied to each country, and that each country needs to have a culture that abides with laws.

Mr. Matschnigg gave IATA’s answers with respect to questions on financing oversight:

  1. Additional charges from flights can be applied for financing infrastructure and oversight.Airlines in general agree in supporting them as long as there is transparency to these charges,
  2. it is important that CAAs purchase what they need for their infrastructure, not what is “nice to have”, i.e. no lavish spending, and
  3. coordinate efforts – funds do exist for the real needs.

Mr. Matchnigg also pointed out that all airlines that pass IOSA audits have safety management systems in place, however, it is the small airlines that need to get these systems now.

Mr. Schlumberger drew three conclusions out of the meeting:

  1. Blacklisting works in giving CAAs clout within their own governments
  2. The exchange of data, especially IATA’s offer, is vital
  3. In combination with the exchange of data, there will be the creation of a central database managed by the World Bank on country by country air transport facts and data (traffic, infrastructure, and safety/security audits, pending projects, donor commitments and funded initiatives)
  4. The core issues in development lies not in funding, but in sustainability, and in transparency of what happens to funds.

Mrs. Maryvonne Plaissis-Frissard, Director of the Transportation and Urban Development Department of the World Bank, closed the meeting by commenting that funds were available amongst those present in the meeting, that safety is the focus of the Bank, and that the economic value of air transport has now been incorporated in the mainstream of the Bank’s work.

Next steps

  1. Finalizing the Publication of the joint ICAO – World Bank – ATAG Workshop in June 2005 (currently pending for comments)
  2. Creation of central database on country by country air transport facts and data
  3. Preparation of next joint ICAO – World Bank – ATAG Workshop in May 2006
  4. Preparation of next ICAO – World Bank – ATAG working group meeting (possibly in March 2006 during Director Generals Meeting at ICAO in Montreal)

Charles E. Schlumberger

Principal Air Transport Specialist

The World Bank

28OCT2006

Minutes of Joint Workgroup Meeting 19OCT05.doc128OCT05