Singapore tops global aviation safety audit by UN agency
It gets full marks in most aspects and notches highest overall score to date among 193 states
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Aviation safety standards in Singapore have been kept at a high level despite the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on air travel globally, checks by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have shown.
The Republic received full marks in seven of eight areas, including legislation, licensing and training of aviation personnel, and the airworthiness of aircraft.
The only area where it did not score 100 per cent was air navigation services, with ICAO, an agency of the United Nations, giving it a score of 98.1 per cent.
Overall, Singapore received an effective implementation score of 99.7 per cent in the audit conducted in April - the highest score to date among the 193 ICAO member states.
The global average score under ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) is currently 67.5 per cent.
The audit was conducted at a time when experts were raising concerns about aircraft maintenance and aircrew competency, with both planes and crew having been grounded for prolonged periods due to the pandemic.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on Friday that Singapore also did well in a separate assessment, which was conducted in April as well.
The ICAO State Safety Programmes Implementation Assessment looks at the maturity of state aviation safety programmes and their ability to proactively identify and manage safety risks.
CAAS said Singapore is the first ICAO member state to undergo phase two of the assessment.
In a statement, CAAS director-general Han Kok Juan said the ICAO safety audit and assessment are timely health checks for Singapore, and affirm efforts to rise above safety-related challenges brought about by Covid-19.
The last time ICAO audited Singapore was in 2010, when the country received an effective implementation score of 98.6 per cent.
Amid the pandemic, the Republic has rolled out a number of initiatives focusing on aviation safety, including a safety charter that calls on signatories to make safety a priority and to encourage voluntary reporting of safety hazards and errors, among other things.
In April, CAAS released its National Aviation Safety Plan, which lists 50 actions that the sector here will take over the next three years to address safety risks. These include reviewing the induction training given to new flight crew and improving the safety of runways at Changi and Seletar airports.
