2015 Christmas Season Greetings & New Year’s Message

Dear CASSOA Stakeholders and friends of the Agency,

It’s the end of 2015 and CASSOA has witnessed a number of achievements in the aviation industry both within and outside the region in the course of the year. Our development partners, namely; International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and AviAssist continued to offer us their technical assistance in capacity building.

The Agency was nominated to the ICAO AFI Security and Facilitation Committee in May 2015 and the continent has also been blessed with the establishment of the headquarters for the Association of African Aviation Training Organisations (AATO) in Addis Ababa following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government of Ethiopia and ICAO on 20th October 2015.

The Agency has seen a growing relationship with the operators as implementation of one of the resolutions from the EASA sponsored workshop on the Certification of Approved Training Organisations (aviation) that was held in Addis Ababa from 21st– 22nd October. One of the air operators in the region, Precision Air, successfully completed the re-certification process as per the harmonized EAC civil aviation safety Regulations while Kenya Airways and Fastjet Airlines are slated for early 2016.

As we wind up 2015, the Agency is faced with the challenge of formulating harmonized regulations on the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), commonly known as drones among the general population, in the region. However, this is not only a challenge for EAC but for the rest of the aviation world.

I wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas holiday season. Thank you for your support during 2015 and I look forward to the same in the New Year 2016.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016

Robert Nviiri
Executive Director
EAC CASSOA

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