Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority has agreed with the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority to commence air services in South Sudan.
According to the letter seen by The City Review, the agreement includes a memorandum of understanding which allows unlimited transportation rights as well as a codeshare agreement between airlines.
A codeshare is an arrangement in the aviation industry where two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their airline designator and flight number to be included in their published timetable or schedule.
“The talks resulted in the initialling of an open-air services agreement, in addition to a memorandum of understanding that allows the designated carriers to operate flights for passengers and freight with an unlimited number of full transportation rights, and to enter into codeshare arrangements between the designated airlines.”
“They also discussed matters of common interest in the field of civil aviation and ways to develop them between the two countries.”
The Director-General of Air Navigation Service, Stephen Rombe Tako Lojulo, said the bilateral relations with Qatar were an important step forward but could not comment because the CEO, David Subek Dada, had not yet communicated with him.
“The bilateral relations with Qatar are one of the important steps we have so far,” he said.
The director of Juba International Airport, Maj. Gen Kur Kuol Ajieu said the CEO of the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority would return to the country from Qatar today, but the rest of the team would remain in Qatar because they had tested positive for COVID-19 and would stay for one more week.
Control over the airspace
In November 2021, Mr Lojulo revealed that South Sudan was yet to take full control of its airspace, as most control processes remain in Khartoum.
Lojulo said the country was being denied control of its airspace due to a lack of proper infrastructure, which was one of the major requirements.
“At that time, we had only three South Sudanese airspace controllers among the Arab (Sudanese) controllers. [They included] some engineers and communicators, so we couldn’t afford to control the whole country’s airspace,” Rombe said.
The director-general said the 2016 agreement gave the country control over lower airspace covering an altitude not exceeding 25,000 feet, which Sudan currently controls from 25,000 feet to 60,000 feet altitude.
“… the two countries should work together to develop the full system in South Sudan, and that was the obligation tasked to Khartoum.
“In short, Sudan must equip South Sudan and train the South Sudanese cadres to take control of their airspace within three years,” he said.
“Then the obligation tasked to Juba was to make the environment conducive or to lay the groundwork for the engineers to come from Khartoum to install the navigational equipment for South Sudan.”
Plans in place
He stated that they had trained 35 airport procedural controllers to enable the country to control its airspace in the near future.
“We are also looking forward to getting rudder controllers and other equipment as it makes possible ways for the development of the centre,” Tako stressed.
The director-general said the Air Traffic Center (ATC) was a project run by the Chinese so that they could install rudders and other equipment.
“We cannot continue to wait for the Chinese to finish the project. Recently, we also brought some equipment from France which have been installed in Juba and now we can communicate with aircraft which is flying near Malakal, Wau, and Rumbek,” he stressed.
South Sudan had been experiencing several plane crashes, which prompted a ban on local planes. The failure was blamed on engineers who were unprofessional in maintaining aircraft and implementing aviation laws.
In May 2021, all airlines were banned by the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) except for Antonov An-26, UN and military aircraft.
In March 2021, at least 10 people lost their lives after a plane crashed into the Jonglei State airstrip. In August 2020, at least 17 people died and one survived in a plane crash at Juba International Airport.
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