IATA's Tony Tyler touts African safety improvements

摘要

Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, has implored African officials to use aviation as a driver of economic growth. Doing so, however, will require African governments to adopt global standards, improve aviation safety and develop a supportive infrastructure, he explained. "The most pressing problem for African aviation today is safety," Tyler said in a statement. In fact, the continent saw an average of one accident for every 305,000 flights using Western-built jets in 2011. Although Tyler conceded that this was a marked improvement from Africa's 2010 accident rate, he said it was still nine times higher than the global average.