Juba has signed a contract with airspace management specialist NavPass, to set up ground infrastructure that will enhance the country’s capacity to manage air traffic and earn more revenue from navigation services
Minister for Transport Madut Biar Yel remarked that revamping the country’s aviation infrastructure was likely to attract more airlines and investment to the country.
Most of South Sudan’s air navigation infrastructure are outmoded leaving aircraft flying mostly undetected over large swathes of its territory. This not only creates safety gaps, but also makes the country lose revenue from aircraft using its airspace.
The new automated technology could boost the country’s annual earnings from overflight fees.
Yel notes that combining this important work, with the collection of fees from passing aircraft for South Sudan, will be a great benefit to the country and the people, it will also help attract more air operators and increase economic development in the country.
NavPass Chief Executive Thomas Perkins further explains that capturing the movement of all aircraft in the country’s skies in real time, the technology will automate the fee collection process with proceeds invested back into the country’s air infrastructure, in line with the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) principles.
Revenues generated will be transferred into an escrow account from which the bulk of the proceeds will be ploughed back into development of aviation infrastructure.
As part of the deal, NavPass will also train South Sudan’s civil aviation staff and help the country train air traffic control officers, establish new protocols with neighbouring airspaces, and improving communications equipment towards compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation safety standards.
NavPass will first work with the government to optimise its lower airspace, covering the departures and arrivals of flights into Juba to make them more efficient and safer.