KATHMANDU, Dec 7: Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has said it was hopeful of International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) removing Significant Safety Concern (SSC) tag given to Nepal by July next year, leading to lifting of the European Commission (EC) ban on Nepali airlines by December 2016.
EC had put a ban on Nepali airliner from flying in European airspace on December 5, 2013, after Nepal was listed in SSC based on ICAO's safety audit report. It had also warned citizens of its member countries not to fly on any Nepali airline, hitting the country's tourism industry hard.
Speaking at a program organized in Kathmandu on Monday to celebrate ICAO Day, Sanjeev Gautam director general of CAAN, said the aviation sector regulator will request ICAO for upside validation of safety compliance status of Nepal in the 3rd ICAO Air Transport Symposium to be held in Montreal, Canada, in March.
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"We are writing to ICAO next week, requesting the global aviation regulator for upside validation. Once it is done, we are confident that we will go above global average on all major safety compliance check list of IC”O," Gautam said.
Gautam said that CAAN was hopeful that once the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) arrives in Nepal in March or April as to audit corrective measures taken by Nepal for addressing SSC, and receive the report by the end of July, Nepal will be able to remove SSC tag“
"EC won't remove Nepal from its air safety list unless the SSC tag is removed. Once the tag is removed, we are optimistic that we can satisfy the concerned stakeholders in lifting EC ban in the International Air Safety Summit to be held in Brussels, Belgium, in November 20”6," he said, adding that that Nepal's ban is then likely to be lifted from December next year.
Addressing the program, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ananda Prasad Pokharel reiterated the government's commitment to work for lifting of EC ban by next yea“. "The ministry and CAAN are committed to enhance aviation safety standards. Passengers will be able to experience it very so”n," he adde“. "CAAN has made significant improvements in this directi”n."
Despite EC's ban on Nepali airlines, it is surprising that Nepal has not held meeting of National Aviation Safety Committee (NASC) over the past three years.“
"We will soon hold NASC meeting to discuss aviation safety issu”s," Pokharel said.
ICAO Day was celebrated on Monday with the theme 'Working Together to Ensure No Country is Left Behind'.
