South Africa and Swaziland in air traffic infrastructure deal

The Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) Company of South Africa and the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) have signed an agreement, aimed at building essential aviation infrastructure that will unlock and stimulate regional economic activity - by contributing to a safe, efficient and reliable transport infrastructure within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region.
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Revenue generated from the collection of fees for over-flights will accrue to Swaziland. This is according to SWACAA Director General, Solomon Dube. “ATNS has a reputation of deploying the best efficient and effective aeronautical billing and collection system in the region, if not the continent”.

The agreement is of a commercial nature, where ATNS will be providing a billing service for SWACAA, for all over-flights that include commercial, non-commercial, scheduled and non-scheduled flights. This will result in more usage of new technologies for better efficiency in communication, navigation and surveillance.

Dumisani Sangweni, ATNS Executive, Commercial Services said this signing builds on the strong relationship established between SWACAA and ATNS over the years. “It aims to strengthen the aviation system in the region and improve safety” he concluded.

In May 2013, the two entities signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Swaziland. Some of the provisions included in the initial agreement stated that ATNS would monitor aircraft which use Swaziland airspace, using specialist equipment that are able to observe aircraft as far as Mozambique and the Indian Ocean.

A joint project management team has – over the past year – been hard at work, making sure that the new agreement has all the loopholes covered before implementation.

A single African sky is a common vision shared by most if not all African ANSPs. And that includes ATNS and SWACAA. The two entities have been SADC VSAT Network Supervisory Board members since 1998. The VSAT Network has eliminated all communication deficiencies in the SADC region and is fulfilling the region’s communication requirements in terms of the ICAO Africa/Indian Ocean (AFI) plan.

PICTURED: (L-R) SWACAA Legal Officer: Jabulile Tsabedze; SWACAA ANS Inspector: Simo Shongwe and SWACAA DG, Solomon Dube, joined by ATNS Executive: Commercial Services, Dumisani Sangweni; SWACAA Communication Head: Sabelo Dlamini; ATNS CFO: William Ndlovu and ATNS Business Development Manager, Lwazi Janda.
 

 

 

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