By Usman Khan
On Thursday, the European Commission continued its ban on Nepali airlines for not meeting international safety standards. Nepal Airlines remain on the updated EU Air Safety List which means they are still barred from EU skies even after nearly 10 years. On September 14, 2022, the European Commission representatives as part of its incessant checking activities met with the representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
On that instance, the CAAN provided the commission with evidence regarding the safety oversight in Nepal and notably their reviewed concerns about the functional parting of the regulatory and service supplier roles which is an enduring issue recognized during the commission discussions with Nepal, as well as by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. This means the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has connected it will not be split into regulator and service provider. Though the civil aviation body has offered no robust reason why it doesn’t want this functional departure.
The European Commission added in its report, “as a follow-up to that meeting, on November 10, 2022, the CAAN submitted to the commission the information and documentary evidence about the adoption of a new CAAN regulation, which in CAAN’s view safeguards the functional separation of CAAN’s regulatory and service provider roles, namely by preventing the transfer of staff between regulatory and service provider sections of the CAAN.”
The report identified, “that the application of this new regulation and progress in aligning the CAAN’s safety oversight with the relevant international safety standards would allow the commission to consider whether a European Union on-site assessment visit to Nepal should be prepared in 2023. On the basis of evidence gathered during such a visit, the commission could assess if a removal of air carriers certified in Nepal would be reasonable. Following the September 2012 crash of Sita Air Flight 601 at the Manohara River which killed 19 people, including seven British citizens, the European Commission imposed a blanket ban on Nepali airlines from flying into the 27-nation bloc in December 2013.
The European Commission has said at this time there are no grounds for modifying the list of air carriers which are focus to an operating ban within the Union with respect to air carriers from Nepal. Member states should continue verifying the effective obedience of air carriers certified in Nepal with the relevant international safety standards through prioritization of inspections of those air carriers.
It is being alleged that the civil aviation body has been misusing its authority but no one wants to speak against it. The chief of the civil aviation body has been repeatedly saying to Nepali media that they will work from two offices in its place of splitting the organization. There is larger politics to avert the organization from being parted. It is also being alleged that once it is broken up, some top position holders will lose the dual benefits they have been enjoying.
The existing system permits the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority to issue tenders for multi-billion-dollar projects. The same person also has the plum job of overseeing compliance with the project and the aviation regulations governing the issuance of licenses to airlines and crews.
No one wants to lose this influence. That’s why, despite intense pressure, it has become hard to detached the civil aviation body for a long time. It’s highly disappointing that Nepal is still on the air safety list even after nearly 10 years. It is impacting Nepal’s tourism industry and the economy in the long run.
The Civil Aviation Authority has been repeatedly issuing reassurances that the European Commission will remove Nepal from the air safety list, citing ICAO's audit report which shows that the country's safety standard has improved some. However, ICAO’s final audit report shows that Nepal’s performance on organization, which defines the organizational structure required to meet safety standards, remains poor. The effective implementation score on organization, one of the eight critical elements, has been abridged to 45.45 percent from the earlier 50 percent. The global average is 71.1 percent.
In its final audit report, United Nations aviation watchdog ICAO formally asked Nepal to split the civil aviation body into two entities—service provider and regulator. The request has come in written form after Nepal showed no readiness to separate the organization.
Splitting the organization is a crucial organizational reform agenda which has been a work in progress for the last one and a half decades. The reluctance to listen to the aviation watchdogs will cost Nepal in the long run. Although Nepali airlines don’t fly directly to the EU, tourists, particularly in the high-end segment, are disinclined to visit to countries that have been marked by the aviation watchdog. Nepal remains red-flagged in international aviation because of its poor safety record. Passing legislation to split the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal into two entities will achieve a main condition of the European Commission. This will hasten Nepal’s elimination from its air safety list, allowing Nepali airlines to fly to Europe and bring more travelers.
However, the government is unwilling to break up the aviation agency which can loosen its grip on it. Nepal’s tourism and aviation sectors lamented that Parliament’s five-year term ended on September 18 without passing long-pending civil aviation bills to separate the civil aviation body, which could harshly hinder their growth and do long-term harm.The hospitality industry has been pouring billions into new properties amid post-Covid optimism that tourist arrivals would take off. Nonetheless, failure to pass the bills is stopping recovery on sound its tracks.