SINGAPORE - It is a critical time for the aviation sector in the Asia-Pacific region to address safety issues together as air travel here heads for a full recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, said Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) chief Han Kok Juan on Tuesday.
The sharp increase in air travel over the past year has strained processes at airports, airlines and air navigation service providers, and observations from other parts of the world are that stress points and incidents that impact safety have increased further as passenger traffic returns to about 80 per cent to 100 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, Mr Han said.
While the rebound in air passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific is still lagging behind the rest of the world, a full recovery is expected in the next one to two years, he added.
Hence, it is important for the region to come together to anticipate the challenges ahead, learn from the experience of others, and prevent similar safety incidents from happening, Mr Han told reporters, as he set the stage for an inaugural Asia-Pacific aviation safety summit that will be held in Singapore from Wednesday.
While Mr Han did not cite specific examples, there have been recent reports in the United States about a string of high-profile aviation incidents, including runway incursions and a near-collision between planes.
In January, hundreds of flights had to be halted in the Philippines due to a power outage that knocked out communication and radar equipment. In the US, a computer system outage on Jan 11 disrupted more than 11,000 flights.
“One fundamental challenge which is not often well appreciated is the need for aviation systems around the world to ramp up very quickly,” said Mr Han.
More than 400 government and industry leaders from 35 countries will be at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre for the three-day meeting jointly organised by CAAS and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), an international non-profit organisation based in the US.
This is more than the initial target of 300 attendees that was set for what will be an annual regional meeting, and includes top officials from the aviation authorities of more than 20 countries, including China, Malaysia, India and Japan.
Topics that will be discussed include how to ramp up aviation operations safely, how the industry should react to the disruption of essential services, how airports can incorporate automation and technology safely, as well as climate change and mental health support for critical workers such as pilots and air traffic controllers.
Mr Han also highlighted the challenge of finding skilled workers in the sector amid a global shortage.
He said: “Air travel is cross-border. We cannot soar safely unless we soar safely together. When our airlines operate in other countries, they rely on manpower in those countries to provide them with technical and safety support, which is why there is a shared interest for us to support one another to address safety challenges.”
It is for this reason that Singapore is co-organising the summit, Mr Han added.
He noted that the strong response to the summit shows that government and industry leaders across the region take safety seriously, and there is a recognition that safety cannot be achieved alone.
Dr Hassan Shahidi, president and chief executive of FSF, said global aviation has gone through a significant upheaval over the past three years, noting that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been different across regions and countries.
“It’s going to be important that we understand the lessons from each of these different countries and regulators, and make sure that those lessons are shared,” he said.
These lessons also need to be incorporated into training and certification programmes and Asia-Pacific’s recovery so that the issues faced in other places such as North America and Europe can be avoided, he added.
