My priority is to improve air safety

RATISH Chandra Lal Suman is the new director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). He talked to Sangam Prasain of The Kathmandu Post about CAAN’s proactive measures to improve aviation safety and policies required to address problems in the aviation industry. Excerpts: As the new director general, what are your priorities? First of all, my priority is to improve air safety standards as the worst safety records have marred the country’s aviation industry. There is a lot of work to be done keeping in mind the deficiencies the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has pointed out. This July, we invited ICAO’s coordination and validation mission to Nepal to validate the corrective measures Nepal has adopted to address and resolve the deficiencies ICAO had pointed out in 2009. Nepal’s percentage of lack of effective implementation of the eight areas audited by ICAO in 2009 was 53.9 percent compared to the world average of 41 percent. We have been conducting regular safety meetings with operators and are preparing an action plan. For the first time, CAAN has invested hefty amounts on airport improvement. Around Rs 520 million has been earmarked for the blacktopping of eight airports this year. The major public concern is frequent air crashes. How can they be prevented? Crashes in Nepal have occurred particularly in remote areas. This is not because of the aircraft or the airport. Disorientation or human error always plays a major role in aviation disasters. We inspect the aircraft during landing and take-off. The responsibility for safe flights lies with the pilots as they have been given the licence to command the aircraft. However, pilots have been using their competency in the wrong manner. CAAN has revised the enforcement manual to stop such tendencies. Under the revised manual, pilots found violating the operational manual four times will lose their licence. Earlier, there was a provision to give additional training to errant pilots. We expect a significant improvement in safety with the revised manual. What do you expect from the ICAO validation mission audit this time? There are eight critical elements that ICAO considers essential for a country to establish, implement and maintain in order to have effective aviation safety. Except for the primary legislation element, we have improved a lot in other areas. We have introduced a number of regulations that have ended haphazard issuance of air operator’s certificates (AOC) and revised the revalidation period. In the absence of Parliament, it was not possible to draft a new act or amend the old one. So we are still weak on the primary legislation part. However, we have made good improvement overall. Are domestic airlines suffering from financial problems? A shortage of aircraft to serve remote sectors is another concern, and they are finding it difficult to buy planes. The current scenario shows domestic airlines are having a hard time. This is because of their management’s poor performance. Yes, there is a problem of air connectivity in the remote sector due to a shortage of aircraft. Government restrictions on importing aircraft older than 20 years have hindered fleet expansion. For example, none of the airlines can afford to buy a US$ 7 million Twin Otter to operate on remote sectors. Aircraft suitable for short take-off and landing airfields are expensive. On the other hand, it is difficult to get aircraft younger than 20 years. In this context, the government should be a little flexible. Why dœsn’t the government cut them some slack in this age of aviation? It’s fear psychosis. The government fears that old aircraft are not safe. If something unfortunate were to happen, everybody will blame the old aircraft. So no government wants to be flexible on the age limit. However, in aviation, the age of the aircraft is not necessarily related to safety. What do you say about the increasing unemployment rate of pilots? A person spends a lot of money to become a pilot, but in reality he or she is unproductive or unemployment. Another reality is that the private sector, which dominates more than 95 percent of the aviation industry, dœs not have a retirement scheme. For example, a captain flies an aircraft till age 65 in a private airline, and after that gets a desk job in the same company. Another problem is flying hours. A pilot needs at least 3,500 hours of flying experience to become a captain. This requirement means that it will take a pilot more than six years to become a captain. The exact flying experience is 1,500 hours to become a captain. It was revised in Nepal after the number of air accidents increased. So with limited airlines and aircraft, vacancies are very limited. The government should introduce a new policy to attract new players and make them sustainable to cut unemployment. Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, Director General, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal