The chief executive officer and director of Civil Aviation Authority, Joseph Kintau, issued this warning at the weekend.
The threat will seriously affect many traveling public especially areas where the only link to the outside world is with air transport.
“Safety issues with CAA are not new. These issues have been on successive governments’ agendas, even before the inception of the CAA act in 2001. We are talking about facilities that were in place for more than 30 years. Most of these facilities have fallen into disrepair; the only option is to replace them,” Kintau said.
The problems according to Kintau had been communicated to the national government to ensure that adequate funding was provided.
In an interview with the Post-Courier, Kintau said CAA was moving and transforming but the organization badly needed initial help from the government
“I am disappointed that airports and airstrip maintenance and development program received nil funding from the 2007, 2008 and 2009 budget allocations,” he said.
“The road system receives adequate funding, but for some reason, the same priority is not given to air navigation and airports infrastructure. Year after year, since 2004, CAA has been submitting comprehensive work plans for maintenance and development of airport infrastructure but to no avail,” he added.
“I have informed the Treasury and Planning departments about the safety and risk issues facing CAA’s operations, prior to the 2009 budget but nothing was allocated in 2009,” he said. “They obviously are not taking these risks seriously. We are talking about lives and an attitude that completely ignores the seriousness of the matter reflects how much we care about human lives, let alone our reputation as a contracting state with the International Civil Aviation Organization.”
