18 May 2022 Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)
Singapore will help promote aviation safety and raise aviation safety standards in the Asia-Pacific region through a new annual regional aviation safety summit. The Asia-Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety (APSAS) will bring together C-suite executives and aviation professionals from regulators, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, and maintenance organisations in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss aviation safety challenges and initiatives.
2 The annual summit will be jointly organised by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). The inaugural summit will be held in Singapore in the second half of 2022. In subsequent years, the summit venue will alternate between Singapore and another country in the Asia-Pacific. On 18 May 2022, Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General of the CAAS and Dr Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO of FSF signed an agreement to jointly organise the annual summits.
3 The APSAS will be an extension of the Singapore Aviation Safety Summit which the CAAS and FSF have been organising since 2015 to reflect its greater scale and reach. It follows a series of initiatives announced this year by the CAAS, which has made aviation safety its top priority as the Singapore aviation sector emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2022, the CAAS launched the first ever Safety Charter to underscore the importance of safety leadership. Eighty aviation organisations have signed the charter, pledging their commitment to uphold safety as a key priority and core value. In April 2022, the CAAS unveiled the first ever National Aviation Safety Plan, setting out more than 50 initiatives that the Singapore aviation sector will embark upon over the next three years to further strengthen the safety regime and ensure that flying remains safe for the travelling public.
4 Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General of the CAAS said, “As the aviation sector emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, aviation safety must be the bedrock of aviation recovery. COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges, including proficiency of personnel, airworthiness of aircraft under storage, lack of familiarity with new protocols and airport layouts, as well as safety leadership and culture in aviation companies under pressure to manage cost and quickly return to service to improve cashflow. As aviation is cross-border, tackling these challenges requires close collaboration and mutual support amongst regulators and private sector players across countries. Currently, safety standards and practices vary. The new annual summit will provide a platform to share best practices and uplift overall safety standards in the Asia-Pacific. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can only soar safely if we soar safely together.”
5 Dr Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO of FSF said, “With the tremendous growth anticipated in the Asia-Pacific region, the time is right to have a dedicated regional collaborative forum for aviation safety. Flight Safety Foundation is pleased to work with CAAS to make this a reality and to continue to drive aviation safety.”