TCAA reformulates civil aviation technical committee

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) has reformulated the Civil Aviation Technical Committee to advise on better ways to address challenges that the aviation sector is grappling with.
The Citizen understands that the civil aviation sector’s challenges range from safety and security, changes in technology, to evolvement of the aviation industry in general.
The regulator’s director general, Mr Hamza Johari, on Friday July 22 said that the committee whose mandate is to advise the authority’s director general on technical aspects of civil aviation, existed, but was not effective due to its composed.
The previous committee which was established as per the Civil Aviation Act, was more of a stakeholders' forum instead of people with expertise in the aviation sector.
“Our decision to reformulate the committee was triggered by the inefficiency of the previous committee to address challenges that the sector is facing,” Mr Johari said.
 The new eight-member committee is chaired by the Director General as per the Civil Aviation Act.
Unlike the previous committee which had 45 members, the new one is composed of eight members who are experts, but not limited to, the fields of safety standards, flight operations, ground handling, air navigation, air traffic management and economic aspects.
Mr Johari exuded optimism that the committee will advise him on the better way to improve the country’s performance in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao)’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (Usoap).
Like any other Icao member, Tanzania is subjected to Usoap, with its current performance standing at 67.3 percent, above the required world average of 60 percent.
However, the performance is well below compared to neighboring Kenya which has scored 92.7 percent in this year’s just released Icao audit results.
“Kenya’s performance suggests that we need to revise our initial Usoap performance plan and target to score 90 percent or so, next year when we are audited,” said the TCAA boss.
Initially, TCAA had a target of scoring at least 83 percent of Usoap results next year.
Celebi Tanzania Aviation Services Ltd board director Gaudence Temu, who is one of the members of the Civil Aviation Technical Committee, thanked Mr Johari for recognising and appointing them.  
“We will use our expertise and experience to advise the director general on civil aviation technical matters accordingly,” he pledged.
His sentiments were shared by another committee’s member, Mr Mtesigwa Maugo, saying he will serve the post with his whole heart.
“I hope we will not repeat the same mistakes that we committed in the previous committee,” said Mr Maugo, who retired in 2016 at a capacity of safety regulation director at TCAA.