Page 17 - The Insurance Times October 2024

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Ensuring Safer Skies in dents due to human error have de- The event was chaired by Chunkey
creased, he noted that more work is Chhetry, CEO of Sagarmatha Lumbini
Nepal Through Adherence needed to further enhance safety Insurance, a leading provider of insur-
to Standard Operating measures. Citing data from the Inter- ance services for the aviation sector in
national Air Transport Organization, Nepal.
Procedures
Dr. Taneja highlighted a significant re-
The Aviation Risk Management Con- duction in aviation accident fatalities. Munich Re Focuses on
clave 2024, hosted by Sagarmatha In 2023, the fatality risk in aviation
Lumbini Insurance (Salico) in collabora- dropped to 0.03 per ten million flights, Risk-Adequate Rates Amid
tion with Prudent Insurance Brokers, compared to 0.69 in 2005. He ex- Market Complexities and
recently concluded at the Dusit Prin- plained that, at this rate, the risk of a
cess Kathmandu Hotel. The event fo- fatal accident for a passenger flying Loss Trends
cused on the critical need for stringent every day over 103,239 years would be Munich Re continues to prioritize main-
safety standards in Nepal's aviation minimal. taining risk-adequate conditions as the
sector. global reinsurance market faces a chal-
Anthony Frankel, General Aviation lenging environment with rising com-
Aviation safety expert Dr. Narindra Head at Lloyds Group, UK, expressed plexities and volatile loss trends. Despite
Taneja delivered an in-depth presenta- concern over the rising number of avia- these headwinds, the global reinsurance
tion on the role of human error in avia- tion accidents in Nepal in recent sector is projected to grow by 2-3% over
tion accidents. He emphasized that months. Referencing data from the the next three years, after adjusting for
human factors continue to pose signifi- past 16 months, he pointed out that inflation, in line with the growth of the
cant risks to aviation safety and Nepal has experienced two airplane primary insurance market. This growth
stressed the need for all stakeholders crashes and six helicopter accidents, is expected to be stronger in the Asia-
to follow safety standards diligently, raising questions about the safety cul- Pacific and Latin America regions, with
not just as a formality but as a mea- ture in the country. Frankel observed slower expansion anticipated in Europe
sure to truly ensure safer skies. that the Nepalese public seems unusu- and North America.
Dr. Taneja shared data showing that ally tolerant of safety failures and The macroeconomic environment has
nearly half of all air accidents are at- warned that this trend, if unad- shown some signs of stabilization, al-
tributed to human error. He urged dressed, could harm both human life though significant geopolitical risks
continuous efforts to identify and miti- and the nation's economy, particularly persist. Global economic growth is fore-
gate these errors, stating, "Based on through a downturn in tourism. casted to be around 2.5% in the com-
careful analysis of past accidents, col- The conclave underscored the vital role ing years, marking a slowdown from
lective and ongoing efforts should be of robust safety protocols and risk pre-pandemic levels. While inflation
made to discover the root causes of management in fostering a safer and rates are decreasing in advanced
human error and prevent their recur- more reliable aviation industry in economies, they remain higher than
rence in the future." While air acci- Nepal. what was seen in the past decade.

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