Flight Safety Foundation will set up the new Asia Pacific Center for Aviation Safety in Singapore to help aviation stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region raise safety standards and capabilities to restart and ramp up operations safely as air travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels. Supported by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), the center will develop an annual work program to meet the needs of regulators and industry in the region and undertake projects and studies to provide a deeper understanding of safety challenges and build capabilities in technology, data analytics and safety management processes. The establishment of the center was announced by S Iswaran, Singapore's Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade relations, at the inaugural Asia Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety organized by the foundation and CAAS.
The center will adopt a data-driven approach in its studies and projects. Through the collection and analysis of safety data and information, the center seeks to provide insights and recommendations to advance safety in the region. For a start, it will work on three key projects in 2023:
- Regional Safety Assessment. This project will pull together available safety data across regulators and industry to identify region-specific risk areas, review safety indicators and occurrence trends, and develop targeted safety solutions.
- Safety Culture Leadership. This project will study the essential elements of knowledge and capability needed to maintain effective safety leadership and organizational effectiveness in the Asia-Pacific region, considering cultural differences.
- Pilot Competency and Training Capabilities. This project will study best practices on pilot training methodologies to better screen, recruit and train pilots to meet rising demand and support the growth of air travel.
More projects will be added to the annual work program in consultation with regulators and industry in the region. CAAS will help fund the center to support the initial set-up and its activities for the first five years.
The foundation has appointed Mitchell A. Fox, a former airline pilot and long-time executive with the International Civil Aviation Organization, to serve as center director. He will be based in Singapore. During his 30 years with ICAO, Fox served as the chief of the TRAINAIR Programme, chief of the Operational Safety Section and chief of strategic planning and regional affairs coordination within the Office of the Secretary General. He also served in the United Nations (UN as the director of Air Transport Service, managing the more than 200 aircraft that support UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.
More information on the Asia Pacific Center for Aviation Safety will be available soon on the Flight Safety Foundation website.
Han Kok Juan, director-general of CAAS, said: "Aviation safety must be a top priority of the Asia-Pacific region as air travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels. It requires close collaboration amongst regulators and industry across countries, given its cross-border nature. The setting up of the regional safety center is timely and provides a common platform for such collaboration. Singapore is deeply honoured to host the center to do our part to contribute to thought leadership and aviation safety standards in the Asia-Pacific region."
Dr. Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the foundation, said: "As commercial aviation in the Asia Pacific region rebounds and recovers from the pandemic, it is important that all stakeholders have the resources and capabilities they need to ramp up operations safely. Working with aviation stakeholders in the region, the center will aim to accelerate regional aviation safety enhancements and support the safe growth of the aviation sector in the region."
