The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO), Basil Agboarumi, has highlighted the critical roles being played by IATA’s Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) in Ground Handling and Airline operations in Africa.
Agboarumi, who was one of the keynote speakers during the just concluded maiden edition of aviation handing conference in Africa held in Casablanca, Morocco, said ISAGO has standardised ground handling operations through its audits thereby ensuring safety of aviation across the world.
While speaking on the topic titled ‘Effectiveness of ISAGO in Managing Ground Handling Services for Airlines Benefits for Africa’, he said ISAGO audit has eliminated Multiple Audits per Ground Service Provider (GSP) and Individual Airline Auditing Systems, increased safety in aviation by ensuring standards which has led to reduction in air accidents unlike what was obtainable before the existence of ISAGO.
The Managing Director stressed that the introduction of ISAGO audit has given room for audit sharing thereby driving down the number of redundant audits and also improving operational safety, Standardisation across multiple operations, reduction of incidents in ground operations and enhancing company’s image/reputation.
Apart from ensuring safety in aviation, Basil stated further that ISAGO has a lot of other benefits, some of which include promotion of efficiency and quality service delivery through innovations and technology, lowering operational cost by eliminating multiple audit which enables ground operators and airlines to focus their resources on operations, to ensure implementation of Safety Management System (SMS) in operations.
The chairman of the conference, Paul Drever said the conference was organised to bring together the buyers, users and manufacturers of GSE to explore how to drive the sector forward. He went on to discuss the operational challenges in airside operations in Africa and how GSE is used in the continent and how it can be improved.
