Introduction of safety audit has reduced bureaucracy in ground handling operations - Agboarumi

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of Skyway Aviation Handling Company PLC (SAHCO), Basil Agboarumi has highlighted the critical roles being played by IATA’s Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) in Ground Handling and Airline operations in Africa.

Basil Agboarumi, who was one of the keynote speakers during the just concluded maiden edition of GSE & RAMP-OPS Africa event in Casablanca, Morocco said ISAGO had standardized ground handling operations through its audits thereby ensuring safety of aviation across the world.

This is contained in a press release made available to our correspondent by Uansohia Vanessa Adetola, Manager, Corporate Communications, SAHCO.

The statement stated that while Agboarumi was. speaking on the topic titled ‘Effectiveness of ISAGO in Managing Ground Handling Services for Airlines Benefits for Africa’, he maintained ISAGO audit had eliminated Multiple Audits per Ground Service Provider (GSP) and Individual Airline Auditing Systems, increased safety in aviation by ensuring standards which has led to reduction in air accidents unlike what was obtainable before the existence of ISAGO.

Basil stressed that the introduction of ISAGO audit has given room for audit sharing thereby driving down the number of redundant audits and also improving operational safety, Standardization across multiple operations, reduction of incidents in ground operations and enhancing company’s image/reputation.

Apart from ensuring safety in aviation, Basil stated further that ISAGO had a lot of other benefits, some of which include promotion of efficiency and quality service delivery through innovations and technology, lowering operational cost by eliminating multiple audit which enables ground operators and airlines to focus their resources on operations, to ensure implementation of Safety Management System (SMS) in operations.

The chairman of the conference, Paul Drever said the GSE AND RAMP -OPS conference was organised to bring together the buyers, users and manufacturers of GSE to explore how to drive the sector forward. He went on to discuss the operational challenges in airside operations in Africa and how GSE is used in the continent and how it can be improved.

The event which took place in Sofitel, Casablanca had other speakers from across the world, amongst whom were David Burgess of Swissport, Tafadzawa Zaza of Air Zimbabwe, Dimitrios Sanos of IATA, Danny Vranckx of Aviaco GSE, while there were exhibitors of world known GSE’s ,such as Air Marrel, Blissfox, Mulag, Transtec Overseas amongst others.

Many topic including, How Portable water reduces fuel consumption, The benefits of an alliance and how small changes can bring rewards, Ramp of the future, Leveraging Technology to improve airside supervision and safety, Increasing operational safety efficiency through aviation training, were some of the topics discussed at the event.