Somalia’s Transportation and Civil aviation minister has insisted that the government is not ready to take…
Somalia’s Transportation and Civil aviation minister has insisted that the government is not ready to take over the management of airspace because of limited resources and huge investment needed to do so.
Last year, Somalia’s Federal government declared that International Civil Aviation Organisation, which has been controlling the airspace of the country since 1996 has agreed to handle over the control to the government and it will be managed from the capital, Mogadishu.
Mr Ali Jama Jangeli said the Federal government is not ready to do so due to limited resources and lack of professional workers.
‘’We will take it over when we are ready, but currently we are not ready,’’ he said in an interview.
Mr Jangeli added that the revenue generated from the airspace of Somalia has been misused but from now onwards will be closely monitored by the Somali government.
After the collapse of Somalia’s central government in the 1991 civil war, the United Nations Development Program and the International Civil Aviation Organization founded a civil aviation caretaker authority for Somalia in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Between 80 and 100 regular flights enter Somalia’s airspace daily. Each of these flights is liable to paying an estimated navigation fee of $275 per entry. Everything remaining constant between 1993 and 2011, a conservative estimate of total revenue (collected or not) thus exceeds $150 million. The self-supporting project currently generates an average of $9 to $10 Million a year. There has not been a full, transparent accounting of how that money has been and is being managed nor where it may be.
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