South Sudan establishes independent Civil Aviation Authority - eTurboNews

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(eTN) - South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a decree earlier this week, establishing the country’s Civil Aviation Authority while at the same time appointing General Agasio Akol as the first Chairman of the Board, overseeing the new aviation body alongside 6 other members.

SSCAA will now seek formal recognition with global body ICAO, the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, and along that way have to accept, and then implement, ICAO’s regulatory requirements governing civil aviation around the world.

SSCAA, when fully established, is expected to carry out all licensing functions for air transport, both domestic but also internationally, as governed by Bilateral Air Service Agreements, aka BASAs, which will issue Air Operator Certification for airlines registered in the South Sudan and carry out oversight and safety functions in line with established practice elsewhere in the world.

The formation of the SCAA is according to a periodic aviation source in Juba “just one step to make our independence fully operational, so that we can become members of, in this case, ICAO. South Sudan will have to abide by global standards and will be tasked to especially uplift operational safety through strict oversight. We had too many aircraft accidents, often by foreign-registered aircraft flying here in South Sudan, because for now we did not have the capacity to establish our own aviation regulators and private aviation industry. This will now change quickly.

“When SCAA is fully working it will be the same like their counterparts anywhere else in the world and region. Aircraft used in South Sudan must get permits, they will have to show evidence of maintenance, and pilots will have to get South Sudan CPLs and ATPLs if they are to fly on aircraft registered in South Sudan. Airlines will have to get air service licenses and AOCs from SSCAA. Foreign airlines need to apply to be recognized when they fly from their own countries to Juba, and their own authorities must make them a designated airline to fly to South Sudan. It is all part of building our nation and our institutions slowly by slowly.”

South Sudan at present has no national airline although the government in Juba was reportedly keen to establish one in due course, perhaps under a public-private partnership to spread the capital requirements into a wider domain. Several smaller airlines, flying domestically and regionally, have been formed in the past before and after independence, but apart from Feeder Airlines failed to make a significant impact on the aviation sector until now.