Critical moment for aviation safety in the region as full recovery nears: CAAS chief

It is a critical time for the aviation sector in the Asia-Pacific region to address safety issues together as air travel here heads for a full recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, said Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) chief Han Kok Juan on Tuesday. The sharp increase in air travel over the past year has strained processes at airports, airlines and air navigation service providers, and observations from other parts of the world are that stress points and incidents that impact safety have increased further as passenger traffic returns to about 80% to 100% of pre-Covid-19 levels, Han said. While the rebound in air passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific is still lagging behind the rest of the world, a full recovery is expected in the next one to two years, he added. Hence, it is important for the region to come together to anticipate the challenges ahead, learn from the experience of others, and prevent similar safety incidents from happening, Han told reporters, as he set the stage for an inaugural Asia-Pacific aviation safety summit that will be held in Singapore from Wednesday. While Han did not cite specific examples, there have been recent reports in the United States about a string of high-profile aviation incidents, including runway incursions and a near-collision between planes. In January, hundreds of flights had to be halted in the Philippines due to a power outage that knocked out communication and radar equipment. In the US, a computer system outage on Jan 11 disrupted more than 11,000 flights.<br/>