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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 3428.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Air New Zealand is an associate member of Aspa, and its operations training chief is a consultant for the South Pacific area training needs study South Pacific prepares for a faster world BRISBANE The Fiji-headquartered Asso ciation of South Pacific Airlines is about to set up a training programme to serve its member airlines, and is considering a number of other ways in which it can help improve air transport links across this vast oceanic area scattered thinly with small centres of population. Warren Goodman reports from Aspa's December meet ing in Brisbane. Aspa was founded in 1979 at the request of the Civil Aviation Council of the South Pacific Forum (an organisation of heads of governments in the area). Its role is to foster co-operation among the airlines based in the area extending from Tahiti and Western Samoa in the east to Papua New Guinea in the west, and from Norfolk Island (between Australia and New Zealand) to the south and Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands) and the Marianas in the north. The 12 countries in the area range from single islands (like Nauru with a population of about 5,000) to archipelagoes with 300 or more islands and populations in six or seven figures. The 18 airlines based in those countries operate aircraft ranging from the Aztec, Islander, and Queen Air to the 747. The area is also served by a number of large airlines based elsewhere, some of which have close management ties with the South Pacific airlines. Among these, Air New Zeal and, Qantas, and UTA are associate members of Aspa. George Faktaufon, secre tary general of Aspa, told Flight that the organisation had been fairly inactive for about three years prior to his appointment in November 1986. It had had no staff of its own, and the personnel from member airlines assigned to work on Aspa matters in their "spare time" found that they had no spare time. As a result, scheduled meetings often lacked a quorum and there was no follow-up on those which were held. Since his appointment, Faktaufon has established a headquarters in the office of the hotel reservations service he runs at Nadi International Airport in Fiji. Since the August AGM Faktaufon has been working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Icao, and lata on setting up the Aspa co-operative training programme. Aspa has received a US$30,000 grant from the UNDP, through Icao, for a study of the specific training needs of its member airlines. It also has been assured of a $600,000 grant to implement the programme, beginning in early 1987. The training needs study is being carried out by two consultants selected by lata: Michael Keogh, head of training for Aer Lingus, and Brian Smith, head of oper ations training for Air New Zealand. Icao and Aspa are already seeking a training co ordinator to run the training programme for the Aspa headquarters in Fiji. It is anticipated that some of the training will be done there and some will be done at the headquarters of other member airlines. Faktaufon presented the Aspa meeting with a preliminary proposal for setting up a permanent secre tariat in Fiji, with a full-time secretary general, facilities for the training co-ordinator, and secretarial help. The office would also house $30,000 worth of training equipment to be provided under the UNDP grant. The proposal, still to be acted on by the members, would require an increase in the Aspa budget and in the dues paid by members (under a formula similar to Iata's). In addition to the training committee, which has produced the most tangible results so far, Aspa has committees working on civil aviation, scheduling, tariffs, safety, and security. The main problem in the field of civil aviation matters is that the countries in the area have varying regulations and certification procedures. Some are patterned on the regulations of the'UK, some on Australia, some on New Zealand, and some on the French regulation. The Aspa airlines see a need for stan dardisation, but there are no suggestions as yet on how to accomplish this. The problem on scheduling arises out of the fact that so many airlines are setting up schedules independently, making it hard to get con venient interline connections. This is particularly important in an area where traffic is so thin that a missed connection might mean having to wait three days, or even a week, for the next flight. A scheduling committee was formed at the meeting earlier this month to consider possible improve ments. Security is not yet a major problem in the South Pacific, but Aspa members feel that it is only a matter of time before they will have to take steps to prevent it from becoming one. As one precaution, they want to be sure that any new airport facilities constructed in the area are designed so that stricter security measures can be adopted without extensive recon struction. This is not feasible at many existing airports because the climate permits the construction of simple terminals without walls, making it difficult to control access to operational areas. John Schaap, chief execu tive of Air Pacific (seconded from Qantas) and the current chairman of Aspa, told Flight that he expected the organisation to play an important role in attacking the increasing problems which will arrive as a result of traffic growth. The extent of the growth expected was pointed out by Gunther Eser, secretary general of lata, at a meeting of the Orient Airlines Associ ation in Sydney just a fortnight before the Aspa meeting. He said: "The Asia/Pacific area is one of the brightest parts of the air transport picture. ... By the early 1990s, the Asia/Pacific region will account for more than one-third of inter national air traffic—more than the European market place." FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 20 December 1986
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