Page 36 - World Airnews Magazine January 2021 Edition

CAASA

INSURANCE general aviation is the single largest

For DJA director Graham Speller said the repository of aviation skills in Africa.
Covid-19 pandemic had been ‘a perfect storm’. Having recently achieved his PhD in Af-

Previous global events and disasters had rican Airlines, he said his relevant findings
already sparked a rethink in insurance cited the biggest single challenge to be the

practice and areas like pricing models were lack of air route liberalisation.

already in focus. Among others identified included weak-

“This led to a reduction in capacity for nesses in management, state protection,

aviation insurance of up to 40% and while the lack of competition, the absence of

the year coming into 2020 allowed a level- partnerships i.e. codeshares and interlining

ling off, the corona pandemic just further and aviation policy and the role of govern-

exposed the industry,” he said. ment in regulation.

The accumulation of stored aircraft has “It’s interesting to note that every single

increased the risk and disasters like the CAA in Africa has more employees working

crash of Ethiopian airlines flight 302 and He said aircraft production had dropped for them than pilots registered.”

the ensuing Boeing 737 MAX crisis led with Airbus 320 production going down As far as 2021 is concerned he predict-

to staggering insurance losses that have from 53 to 40 per month and the wide ed that the African aviation economy will
affected the market. body sector suffering even more - going bounce back by 4 -5% and with the lack of

As a result of all this, he said, insurers are down to eight a month. proper road and rail transport infrastruc-
being pushed for a rate increase at a time He said both Airbus and Boeing have ture it will be up to the GA sector and

when the industry simply cannot afford it. had to lay-off significant numbers of airlines to provide the skills needed for
AFRICAN OVERVIEW workers with figures rising to 13,000 at the recovery.
Stressing the need for intra Africa route
Airbus and 16,000 at Boeing. He also
Aviation expert Linden Birns gave a mentioned that a 20 billion debt has been connectivity as a means to kick start the

detailed overview of the wider industry added to the industry as a result recovery, he said opportunities do exist.
and Africa. of Covid-19. “Currently there are 400 international

He used the drop in city pairings in Africa He said on a positive note the cargo mar- routes open but less than half are served

from 970 pre-COVID-19 to 100 in mid-2020 ket had begun to recover with 2019 levels daily,” he said.

as indication of the effect of the pandemic. expected to be reached in 2021. He said high frequency routes are needed

“South Africa was the most connected He said the arrival of the vaccine is key to support this and should triple in the

country in Africa with connectivity growing to recovery, but this came with problems coming years. But this can only happen

by 17% in 2019. But 2020 saw a fall of related to the distribution network, bad with the right policy and the effective

90%,” he said. governance and corruption. implementation of SAATM.

The situation has started to improve as “ This is where GA is able to step in and

countries open up their air space. OPPORTUNITIES play their part in solving the African con-

But, he said, aircraft manufacturers are Guy Leitch, Editor of SA flyer addressed a nectivity challenge,” he said.

facing their own problems as a result of number of key issues in his presentation Most of the presentations from the sym-

the crisis with loads of aircrafts currently titled ‘ Opportunities in African aviation ‘. posium are available to watch on YouTube

in storage. Leitch began by stating that South African if you missed the event. Q
MIKE FOR PRESIDENT
board of directors. operations company.

Due to COVID19 the aviation industry After BalmOral, Clark joined NAC’s in-

he Commercial Aviation Associ- suffered tremendous setbacks and Clark ternational operations where he gained

Tati on of Southern Africa (CAA- was instrumental in drafting the COVID valuable aviation operational experi-

SA) has announced the appointment of compliance document for the aviation ence. There Clark completed a Master’s

Mike Clark as the next president of the industry. degree in aviation management at the

association. He is also actively involved in the Da Vinci Institute. Shortly after that he

Clark first joined CAASA as a member ANSO Project that collaborates with the took up a position at ExecuJet Aviation

of ASAAT and was elected president of South African Civil Aviation Authority where he was promoted to operations

ASAAT in 2014 - a position he held up (SACAA), to assist with issues that have director and spent seven years in that

to 2016. occurred in the non-scheduled industry. position.

He joined the association of Clark was born in Johannesburg In 2015 Clark joined Swift Flite as
non-scheduled operators (ANSO) in and after completing his national the CEO.
2016 and was also elected president in service in the South African Air Force, In 2020 he became managing director

the same year. he studied building management. Absolute Aviation aircraft sales and

He served in this position until 2018 He gained management experience flight services.

when he was elected as a director of in various industries and in 1999 He is married to Vicki Clark and has

the CAASA board and in 2020 was ap- he joined the Aviation industry at two daughters - one who is actively

pointed as president elect by the CAASA BalmOral, a Durban based aircraft involved in the aviation industry. Q
World Airnews | January 2021
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