Slim chances of Nepal being delisted
KATHMANDU, NOV 16 -
Chances are slim the Aviation Safety Committee meeting of the European Commission (EC) scheduled to be held in the last week of November will remove Nepal’s aviation sector from its air safety list.
Nepal had sent one more report on major issues pointed out by the EC in mid-September to convince the European aviation watchdog that significant progress has been made to ensure air safety, after a previous meeting held on March 25-27 in Brussels, Belgium, did not consider necessary to discuss Nepal’s agenda. The committee meeting is scheduled to be held on November 25-27 in Brussels.
But this time too, things are looking unfavorable. And, it is because the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) placed the “significant safety concern (SSC)” tag on Nepal’s aviation sector after the EC imposed an operating ban against Nepali carriers within the European Union (EU) last year.
In August 2013, the Icao identified a SSC with respect to the ability of Nepal to properly oversee its airlines (air operators) under its jurisdiction. The Icao has grave concerns about Nepal’s air safety, and has placed it among the 12 worst performing nations. They are Botswana, Kazakhstan, Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Djibouti, Eritrea, Haiti, Lebanon, Malawi and Papua New Guinea.
Nepal has been red-flagged on “operations” among the eight critical elements of safety oversight. “Until the tag is removed from the bad books of the United Nations aviation watchdog, the operating ban is likely to be continued,” sources at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) said. “If the SSC is lifted, we can seek Nepal’s removal from EC’s safety list,” said a senior Caan official.
However, Nepal has not been invited for EC’s November meeting. “All these scenario suggest a rare hope of being delisted from the commission’s blacklist,” the official said.
Caan officials, however, said they were making efforts to remove Nepal from the blacklist. Last Friday, Caan invited an Icao auditor to Nepal to look into the overall progress made in the aviation sector before inviting the Icao re-validation mission. Based on the auditor’s evaluation report, the Icao re-validation team will come to Nepal “probably” by February next year, the officials said.
The Icao monitors Nepal’s aviation safety oversight capabilities through the ICAO Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVM). A mission had arrived in Nepal in July last year to validate the corrective measures taken by Nepal to address deficiencies pointed out by the global aviation watchdog in 2009. The mission carried out an on-site audit from July 10-16, 2013.
Source: The KathmandU Post
