"Like the rest of the world, Africa is trying to standardize and have a uniform liberalized airspace, and you can't do that with 54 different civil aviation authorities," ACAA chief excutive officer Mwangi wa Kamau said Wednesday.

The ACAA is to be based in the Namibian capital Windhoek. Five regional bodies, based in Libya (North Africa), Ethiopia (East Africa), Cameroon (Central Africa), Nigeria (West Africa) and South Africa (Southern Africa) will serve as networking agencies under its auspices. Together with Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Kenya, the five countries that will host the regional bodies account for over 80 per cent of air traffic in Africa.

With staff drawn from and paid for by governments affiliated to the ACAA, the body hopes to bring down the rate of fatal aviation accidents in Africa. Accounting for a mere 3 per cent of global air traffic, Africa has a disproportionately large share of accidents. "At the moment we stand at 17 per cent or just under one in five of all fatal aircraft accidents in the world," wa Kamau said.

He attributed the dramatic rise in accidents over the past few years to the increase in air traffic across the continent and the increase in the reporting of accidents, but also to a lack of responsibility on the part of pilots. A "culture of patronage" reigns among pilots, who often feel more beholden to their employers than to their passengers, he
noted. "What we're trying to do is develop a culture of responsibility, with or without the long arm of the law looking over your shoulder."

This, he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, will not only help bring down accident rates but also ensure that better-trained staff is not siphoned off to other parts of the world. "If the ACAA can ensure that aviators are certified and paid according to international standards, they will be able to help ensure air travel in Africa is deemed safe."
Pilots will be able to move freely across the continent and take up new positions without being subjected to lengthy national approval procedures. Industry experts predict growth of 5.4 per cent for Africa's commercial air transport sector over the next 20 years, driven, according to Airbus's latest global market forecast, by solid
economic and tourism growth and inter-African traffic.

Worldwide growth in the sector is predicted at 4.8 per cent. Africa's fleet of commercial aircraft is also predicted to more than double by 2025, to around 1,000 aircraft by the year 2025. Currently, most Africa airlines are in state hands and, despite a basic agreement on the liberalization of African air traffic,
operate in a heavily regulated market.